Wake Up Call
by FOBsession-DL-Freak
Summary: There's a reason behind every bad ass. For Puck, there's a lot of reasons. Finn's worried so he confides in Rachel to talk to. Then Rachel takes matters into her own hands, can she really fix Puck? Or is she just making everything worse? Puckleberry.
1. Wake Up Call

**Summary: **There's a reason behind every bad ass. For Puck, there's a lot of reasons. Finn's worried so he calls in Rachel to help, can she really fix Puck?

**AN: THIS IS A**** SERIOUS ****FANFICTION, WITH SOME HUMOR. **It's about drugs, and what Puck's life is like that's made him so much of a player and whatever. It's kinda just a background story behind him. There will be romance, and some humor along with it, but mostly it's a serious story.

**Disclamer: **If I owned Glee, I'd be married to Puck already and he would have had a longer and better relationship with Rachel. :P

* * *

**Wake Up Call - Broadway Calls;**

_My jaclet pockets are full of my hands._

_On nights like this I'd rather stay inside._

_Cause the bitter wind is blowing, but I get to see my friends tonight._

_I'll be stuck in this place for the rest of the year._

_I can fell the indifference,_

_What's the difference?_

_I don't need this._

He ran as fast as he could. There's no way he could get caught this time. The footsteps behind him sounded the same as they did minutes ago. Not speeding up, not slowing down. It amazed him that the cops in this town could actually keep up with him on the diet they looked like they were on. He was a star athlete and all they did was sit in their car waiting for some action, and we're not talking about just in the crime catagory.

He could go on for hours talking about how everything in this town could be messed with, especially it's law inforcement, but right now he had more important things to worry about.

Like where to go. Where to _hide. _

Going to his house was out of the question if they saw his face. He couldn't figure out if that happened because he had bolted as soon as he saw the light. Finn's could work, but if he wasn't home there was a chance that he would be stuck out side in the open for the cops to see him. Was he willing to take the risk?

The next turn was down another back alley. There was a fence in his way, but with being a part of track the earlier year jumping up and over it wasn't a hassle. The cops on his trail would probably have a lot of trouble catching up to him though. He quickly jumped onto the fence, getting as much hight as he could while the footsteps seemed to be getting closer. He struggled a little once on the fence, but quickly got to the top before the light of the flashlights hit him. He jumped over and didn't dare look back.

He was sprinting once again as he heard an officer hit the fence in frustration, yelling something he couldn't hear over the sound of his heavy breathing and stomping footsteps underneath him. He took a hard left, and almost slid on mystery slime. That made his heart speed up even more then it already was. He could feel the beating in his throat as well as his chest.

Before he knew it, he was panting outside of Finn's house. With a quick look down the street to the left and the right, he started his way up the front lawn. There wasn't a rush. I doubt that even if there was one, that he could have ran anymore with his legs feeling like jello. He was thankful that there was a light on in Finn's windown.

Finn's second story window.

"Fuck." He cursed to himself. He wasn't that happy for Finn having enough money to buy a two-story house. Regardless, it was the only safe place to go.

There was an old fence with vines and weeds growing on it right out to the left of Finn's bedroom. Fences were starting to become one of his least favorite things on Earth right about now. He became paranoid when a car drove by slower then it probably should have, and he climed faster then he was going to. Faster then he thought was capable with his muscles pounding just from walking up the slanted front yard. If it wasn't for the recent adrenaline rush, it would have all been to much pain for him to handle.

He was almost to the top when his foot slipped down and he lost his balance, and if it wasn't for his one hand being able to grab onto a sturdy peice of the fence, that would have been another thing on his list of pain. He sighed and took a breather for a minute, getting his footing back, looking down. His pants got ripped open in the process. Great. He'd get shit from his mom for that again.

When he got to the top, he knew what was next. The some what of a jump to Finn's window. A jump or a stretch, give or take. He grabbed onto the seil of the window and used what was left of his strenght to hang from it. His left hand went up and opened the window. The lift up was hard and he could barely do it, but he got to where his body could get in. He was lying with his upper body pulling him into the window.

That's when his arms caved.

Finn was sitting at his computer and jumped when he heard the body hitting the floor of his room, followed by a groan of pain.

"Puck, what the hell?" Finn said, definetly startled. He got up quickly and went over to Puck, who was still laying on the floor, with the rest of his body now in the room. Finn helped Puck get up so that he was sitting, and turned him so his back was against the wall.

Puck gave him the one minute sign when he started coughing, obviously the fall from he window knocked the wind out of him. Finn took this as a cue to close the window and kneel by his side.

"What happened to you?" He asked, surveying over Puck's condition. The rip and cut in his knee, the bruise starting to form on his chest that was visable through his black jacket opening and the V-neck he had on.

"I almost got busted on J-Street." Puck said repositioning himself against the wall, cringing when his head hit the window seil.

"Why're you still going down there, I thought you stopped that." Finn said, all of that sympathy he had for him was gone. So was some of the respect he had for him. Finn left Puck's side and moved back over to his computer, "What were you doing this time?"

"_I _wasn't doing anything, it was all Nick. He was down there sellin' and I was just standing there, waiting for him to be done with whatever he was selling." Puck explained.

Finn wasn't buying this. Not this time, "Then how'd you get the bruises?"

"We got chased by the cops, I lost Nick a little while after I started running. I tried to hop a fence and I guess I got caught up on the top. The rip is for your stupid fence." Puck said getting off the floor, slowly but effectively. He steddied himself and got over to Finn's bed before laying down on it.

"Oh. Feel free to just take up space," Finn was annoyed with Puck and he wasn't even there more then 5 minutes. "You told me you stopped dealing. You lied to me, Puck. I'm your best friend, and you'd lie to me."

Puck sat up and looked at Finn, "You're kidding me, right? Did you not just hear what came out of my mouth? It was _Nick, _not me. I don't have anything to sell, anyway. I wouldn't lie to you."

"You're doing it right now." Finn said, or maybe yelled would have been the right term.

"Fine. Don't believe me," Puck hated when this happened. He told Finn everything about his life because Finn was the only one who acted like he really cared and gave a fuck about what could have happed to Puck if he'd have stayed with his old group of friends. Before he joined football. Before he found Glee. Puck was just a punk on the street, getting buy doing whatever he could to get some quick cash to support his habits. He was a definet drug addict, and he seemed to be proud of it. His freshman year was all about pissing off the school board, and making whoever was below him on the social-food chain's life hell. He did what he though would give him some satisfaction from his life at home and at school. He found that on the streets. "Can I crash?"

Finn just shrugged and focused on his Spanish paper that was due in a few days. That's when Rachel signed onto AIM.

**OscarWinningRachel: **hi finn.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **hey...

**OscarWinningRachel:** what's going on?

**OscarWinningRachel:** those dots aren't something you do very often, only when you're upset.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **just some stuff with puck.

**xQBx05xFinnx:** no big deal.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **srsly.

**OscarWinningRachel:** i think it is a big deal.

**OscarWinningRachel:** you can tell me anything Finn, you know that, right?

**xQBx05xFinnx:** yea rach.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **i knw.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **but for now its not a big deal.

**OscarWinningRachel: **if you say so...

**xQBx05xFinnx: **why dont you im like a normal person?

**xQBx05xFinnx: **with abreviations?

**OscarWinningRachel: **abbreviations*

**OscarWinningRachel: **and i don't know. it's just not something i enjoyed doing.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **you ever gonna start?

**xQBx05xFinnx: **its fine how you type, but its just not normal for me to see.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **i guess?

**OscarWinningRachel: **i'll start when you tell me what's going on with you and Puck?

**OscarWinningRachel: **how about that?

**xQBx05xFinnx: **i dont wanna say it on here.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **i'll tell you tomorrow at gc practice ok?

**OscarWinningRachel: **i think that can work.

**OscarWinningRachel: **uh-oh. i have to go.

**OscarWinningRachel: **um... i'll ttly?

**OscarWinningRachel: **i think that's right?

**xQBx05xFinnx: **yeah. its definetly right.

**xQBx05xFinnx: **night rach

**OscarWinningRachel: **goodnight Finn.

_**OscarWinningRachel has signed off.**_

Finn hit the save button on the top of his screen, pushed his keyboard back under his desk and turned the monitor off. After the last time he turned his computer all the way off, he had to restart his entire project that was due the next day because when he opened the file the next day, everything was in symbols that he couldn't understand.

He got up from his seat and went to go to his bed to lay down. He would have succeeded in that too if it wasn't for Puck, passing out and being a bed hog and laying right across his already to small bed. Finn groaned in frustration and slight exhaustion. He went out into the hallway and grabbed a blanket, a pillow, and a blow up mattress along with the hand pump. He was tired enough as it was but it was better then waking Puck up. Either way he'd have to pump the mattress up some how.

The things he did for his best friend...

When Finn went out into the hallway, Puck repositioned himself to face the window he just fell out of... or into if you wanted to get technical. He opened his eyes and looked out into the night, thinking about how annoyed he was that Finn wouldn't listen. How Finn could just jump to conclusions without hearing him out. It was bullshit in his opinion.

The sound of Finn stumbling into the room with his view blocked by his extra blankets and pillows startled Puck. He jumped a little, but quickly got back to "sleeping". He heard everything Finn was doing, over anything that was in his mind at the time. Especially when Finn hit his foot on his football helmet that was just lying on the floor.

Puck didn't know why Finn was so worried about him, he was tough. He could handle himself.

Finn was done fixing his make shift bed on the floor, so he went over and turned off the light.

Not much even happened that night, to be honest. He was hanging out with Nick, and it was all Nick's fault the cops came. Unlike Puck, Nick had a hidden agenda. Not to mention about an ounce of hidden pot in his pocket when their night started. They were supposed to just go to the movies to see if their friend Alyssa could sneak them into a free movie or two. Puck had a feeling the night was going to turn south when they didn't head in the right direction for the movies. this was a familiar way for him, but not to get to the out, Nick just needed Puck for a little extra muscle, because it's what you've got to have when you're down on J Street,. One of the nastest streets in all of Ohio. The best place to make some money selling whatever drug happened to be popular.

It was Nick. He was the one who got caught selling to an undercover cop. Puck was just the one that was on the side this time, but being with Nick means that he was guilty by association. Puck's mom would have killed him, and probably tell his Uncle Charlie, who was one of the toughest cops in all of Lima. He wouldn't cut it easy for Puck, not when it came to this.

When Nick found out it was a U.C, they both booked it in opposite directions. The U.C might have got Nick, they must have been on extra surveillance because another cop car came out of no where.

You know the rest of the story, but Finn didn't. He would though. Soon.

Right now, Puck just wanted to sleep..._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**The Next Morning:**

Finn woke up to the sound of his blaring alarm clock, playing a song that he hasn't heard in a while. _U Got It Bad _by Usher. He rolled over so he was laying on his stomach. The sun was glaring through his window right in his face. That was definetly something he wasn't to happy about waking up to. His hands moved to his eyes and rubbed all the nasty sleep junk out of the corner before sitting up.

Getting up that fast definetly gave him a slight head rush. He stayed still for a minute, keeping a hand on his forehead and opening his eyes pretty wide. When that dizzy sensation passed, he slowly got up. He walked over to his dresser and got out his clothes for today. A blue and black long sleeved shirt, with a sort of faded pair of jeans and a black belt.

Finn also picked out a white shirt for his sleeping friend, just in case he needed it. When he turned around to throw Puck the shirt, Puck wasn't there.

That was just like Puck. Leaving before someone got the chance to confront him about something.

Or at lease that was what Finn thought until he heard the toilet down the hall flush. He knew it wasn't his mom because she works from 5 in the morning until 6 in the afternoon. His theory was proven correct when Puck walked in scratching his head.

"I thought you bailed." Finn said throwing the shirt his way.

"Thanks," Puck caught the shirt with one hand, and started taking his black one off with the other, "I was planning on it, but I wanted to talk to you."

"Really?" The words came out of Finn's mouth in almost a stutter. This _wasn't _like Puck.

"Yeah. Dude, I would tell you if I was dealing. I promised you that I would, and I also said that I'd stop. And I will, after I get some more money so I can help my mom out, okay?" Puck said in a serious tone.

Finn sighed, "Okay. I'll believe you, but just stay away from those guys. They're the reason you're always getting in trouble."

"Okay... I'll just sell to the Coach then." Puck said smirking, grabbing his shoes off the floor and walking out of the door.

"Wait! Coach smokes?" Finn called after Puck who was already out the door...______________________________________________________________________________________________

Rachel was waiting at her locker for Finn, acting like she was doing something important trying not to look to noticeable. She took out her Honors Biology book, flipping the pages, then putting it back, going down the line of her neatly organized binders until she "found" what she was looking for as she heard Finn's locker open behind her.

She turned around and acted like she hadn't noticed, "Oh! Finn. I didn't hear you come up. Good Morning."

"Good morning to you, too." He said with a smile. He opened his locker and roughly stuffed his back pack into it, not caring what it crushed or if it wasn't supposed to fit on that shelf. He'd make it fit.

Rachel cringed a little. Her locker was so neat and tidy, but his was just a giant mess. She shook off the weird feeling of disgust, "How was the rest of your night with Puck?"

"It was okay. He fell asleep a little after he got there. This morning we talked though, and now everything's cool." He said, still trying to get his back pack to fit in there so he could close the door.

"Well, what did you talk about this morning?" She asked.

Finn turned to talk to her about it when he saw Puck walking down the hallway to his first period. He would have said something but that was before he noticed the black eye that Puck had. Finn pulled him towards his locker and tried to keep his voice down.

"What happened?" Finn asked surveying his eye. He went to touch it, but Puck smacked his hand away.

"I hit my eye on my mirror."

Rachel moved to the front of Puck so she could see what Finn was asking about. She gasped when she saw it, "That's not a simple hit with a mirror, it looks like you got punched..."

"What could have happened to you in the last half an hour?" Finn asked. Puck just looked at him, but quickly shifted his gaze to the floor. "Oh no. No. No. No. You swore."

"I swore I'd stop when I got enough money, which it just so happens, I don't." Puck said as the bell rang. He walked away from Finn without another word, glaring at everyone who was in front of him or tried to stop and say hi to him. Unfortunetly for one kid walking by, the contents of his coffee were now all of the floor, thanks to a quick flick of the wrist from Puck. No one was safe from pissed off Puck.

"What'd he swear? I'm confused..." Rachel said, luckly Rachel and Finn recently got the same first hour because of a schedual change requested by Rachel's Daddy. Saying she wasn't being challanged enough for her last class.

Finn started walking to class, grabbing a binder out of his locker and trying to let Rachel catch up to his long strides. He always liked that she was sort of short, and walking with her took extra time, but not today. He wanted to get to Glee practice so he could talk to Puck more, so his theory was that if he could get to class soon and get to all of them faster, time would go by faster. The laws of time were wasted on Finn.

"He swore to me that he'd get out of all the bad stuff he's been doing. That black eye proves he was lying. He left this morning way earlier then he was supposed to, I was jsut getting up and he left the house around the same time. He could have went down to the corner and tried to get rid of his stuff by the time I was fully ready to go." Finn said as they walked into the class.

There was only a few kids seated in the class when the late bell rang. The reason being that there was a very old substitute in the place of the teacher. Finn assumed that the kids who noticed the sub, walked right off campus.

This just so happened to work out better.

Finn and Rachel took a seat in the back corner, away from the sleeping students in the front. Finn against the wall, and Rachel to the side of him.

"Finn, I can't understand what your talking about if you're going to be so vague about it. Can you just start from the beginning?" Rachel said, turning in her desk so that she was facing him. Putting her right leg over her left, making sure that her skirt stayed on her thighs. Much to Finn's dismay. He was staring at her skirt when she turned.

She noticed he was staring and coughed slightly. He snapped out of it and gave her a nervous smile, "I don't really know if I should be telling you this... I mean it's Puck's business an-"

"Please? Maybe I can help." Rachel cut off.

Finn ran a hand through his hair and turned to face her. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together.

"Well... I didn't know Puck that well in my freshman year, but I heard a lot of stuff about him. He fell into the bad crowd. A bunch of seniors that were just the bad kids. In the office every day, skipping school, anything they could do to get in trouble they did. If you heard about a fight, you could win money betting on one of them starting it. They were even on the street selling drugs and junk. Everyone said he'd come to school high on something different every day. Weed, something called bars, ecstacy, all of that stuff. I saw him a few times, but nothing really screamed that he was on drugs, ya know?" Finn said, lowering his voice. "Then when sophmore year came around, I started talking to him because of football. I found out that a lot of that was true... But he wasn't happy with it. He hated himself. He's just been through a lot of shit, and he thought that was the only way to get rid of it. He was pretty addicted to some shit, but he wanted help. I was there for him to helped him get better."

"Do you know what happened? I mean, to make him do that stuff?" Rachel asked.

Finn had to think back. He knew a majority of what went on in Puck's life, but not all of it. Puck was good at getting the subject changed when it got uncomfortable, but obviously Finn wasn't.

"His mom was having money issues, and she still is. That's what he ment by saying he was going to stop when he got enough money earlier. He was selling stuff on the corner of J street this morning. I'm guessing that's when he got the black eye." Finn said. Rachel was about to say something, but she saw something register in Finn's brain, "Wait. If he got punched, he could have lost what he was selling... He could be in some serious trouble."

"Something tells me that he's fine. If he just got a black eye, he wouldn't have lost anything. I've seen Noah fight, he's really good. I'm pretty sure he could stand up for himself in a fight." Rachel said, partially to get the look of worry off of Finn's face. It wasn't her favorite thing to see and it was something she saw a lot. On a normal day, she couldn't help it but now she had a chance to.

The other part was because she really has seen Puck fight. A few times actually. Everyone of them was in favor of Puck. He never made it out with any serious injuries, it always seemed that the other person was in some serious pain. Rachel wouldn't be worried if she was walking with Puck and someone tried to jump them. Wow, that was a weird though for Rachel. She blinked a few times and turned her attention back to Finn who was really worried.

"Finn, calm down." Rachel said, placing a hand over his and giving him a reassuring smile.

He took a deep breath, "Other then the money, there's something that's going in with his family but he won't really tell me anything more then they're just fighting. But anyway, He almost got caught by the cops last night because he was with someone who was selling. He didn't tell me that he was the one doing it. He's still friends with some of the people from that crowd. He was with them last night, and they're not the best thing for him. At all. He's been clean for a while, and I don't want him going back to this. He's better then this, but he has his moments."

"I'm sure he's fine. If you want, I can try and talk to him?" Rachel suggested.

"Thanks Rach, but I don't think that's a good idea. Puck would kill me if he found out I told you this stuff." Finn said, turning back in his desk.

"Okay..." Rachel said, her voice slightly confused and concirned. She turned back in her desk, staring down and sneaking glances at Finn, watching him thinking about Puck...  
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Noah!" Rachel called out, hurrying to catch up to him after Glee practice. She thought that now would be a good time to try and talk to him about what Finn told her. Sure he told her not to, but what harm could it do? She had to almost jog to keep up with him, it was a disadvantage of being short.

Puck rolled his eyes and cursed in his mind. He was almost out to the parking lot, all he had to do was go through the rest of the bleachers and across the football feild and he'd be home free. So close, but yet so far. He turned to face her, seeing only her behind him, "What Rachel?"

He already sounded annoyed, "I wanted to talk to you..."

She was finally a foot away from him, standing in front of him. She felt sort of odd being this close to him. It wasn't a bad feeling, it was just weird. Her heart was racing, and she didn't really understand why. Was she scared?

"So you couldn't have done it in the last 6 hours of school?"

"Actually there's 8 hours of school, but that's besides the point. Finn told me you've been having problems at home and I was wondering if there's anything I can do to help? You're better then all of that stuff Noah." She said putting a hand on his arm, rubbing it in comfort looking him in the eye.

"Finn told you that stuff?" Puck said, not moving away from her. He just looked at her hand. She didn't know whether to keep it on, or take it off.

"Yes... After he saw you with the black eye, he told me he was worried about you. I am too."

"I'm a big boy Rachel, I can take care of myself. Tell Finn that I'm fine. Actually, you know what, don't. I will. And for the record, I **can** handle whatever the hell I get myself into." He said taking her hand off of him. He went from the nice quiet Puck, to the mean jerk in a milisecond. He turned with a glare and started walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" She yelled after him.

He turned around and started walking backwards, smirking in her general direction, "I'm gonna go party. Where else?"

"You promised Finn you'd stop doing that!" She said, making sure she was loud enough for him to hear her clearly.

"Finn broke a promise, too. It's called payback. And sometimes, it's a bitch." He said turning back the right way, walking fast without really looking like he was trying.

She tried to call after him to get him to stop, but it was all over with. He was already half way across the football feild. She did, however, notice that he pulled something out of his pocket. She was scared for a second when he stopped. Her instant reaction was that he had a gun and he was about to shoot her, but then he held it up to his ear, and she knew it was a cell phone.

Given his past, who wouldn't have put 'gun' there as an option?

Whoever he was talking to didn't get to say much, she could see that he was doing all the talking because he had to walk in a slant to get off the football feild. As soon as his words ended, so did the phone conversation.

She was about to walk after him and try to talk to him again, except the sound of her phone playing Defying Gravity inturupted her potential stalking moment.

"Oh no..." She trailled off. 'Finn' flashed on the screen of her phone. "Um... Hi Finn."

"Why'd you tell Puck I told you? Now I don't know where he's going, or what he's going to do. He trusted me with that stuff and now he's going to go to a party and probably get fucked up. Why would you do that Rachel?" Finn paniced into the phone.

"Calm down, Finn. How much trouble could he really get into? I mean, it _is _Lima, Ohio."

"Yeah, well Lima isn't a town of saints. We've probably got just as much stuff wrong with us here as the big cities do. And it's high school, people are desperate for trying to get in trouble. Something like that. You're just to sheltered to realize this stuff, Rach." He said.

That hit a soft spot. She wasn't _that _sheltered. Sure her dad's were protective, but just to the point that they didn't want anything to kill her, or hurt her. Not like she wasn't smart enough to decide that stuff for herself. Her parents wanted to give her as much freedom as they could, but they still wanted her to be safe. Most of the sheltering was actually done by herself, not just because of her dad's rules.

Finn sighed into the phone, "Sorry... That was sort of harsh. I shouldn't be attacking you. It's my fault, not yours."

"No. Finn, it's really not. I should have listened to you," She said, making sure her voice didn't lead on that she was slightly upset about the sheltered comment, his apologies don't always work on her. He ment it and she knew it, "I'll make it up to you."

"I think you've done enough." Finn said, trying to break that to her gently.

"No, I'll find Puck. He can't be going to far." She suggested.

"How would you know where to look? Did he tell you?" Finn asked, "Let me go if you know. I'll talk to him."

Rachel turned to walk back into the school, but stopped when she saw a flyer on the fence under the bleachers: '**Party! Free Beer! B.Y.O.M! 6pm and into the A.M.**'And of course, there was an address.

"I don't know where it is... Then again it _is _Lima. Shouldn't be to hard." She said, taking the flyer off the fence.

"It couldn't hurt, I guess."

"Thank you, Finn. I'll call you later and tell you how everything is. Goodbye." She said hanging up...._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**AN: **THIS TOOK ME FOREVER. Take the time to review. A lot of people put alerts on my stories, but I'd love to know WHY you put the alert there, if you don't mind.


	2. You Look Wonderful Tonight

**AN: I NEED TO CLARIFY ****that Puck and Rachel **_**haven't**_** gone out yet. **They're just friends. Think of this as the first few episodes before Mash Up. Rachel DOES like Finn. Obviously. Finn knows that Quinn's pregnant, and she'll be in this, too. Give it time. Some of the song's that I'm using in the beginning will be used again in later chapters, as actual songs. Especially this one.

* * *

**You Look Wonderful Tonight - Slightly Stoopid;**

_We go to a party, and eveyone turns to see_

_This beautiful lady, who's walkin' around with me,_

_and then she asks me darlin', do you feel alright?_

_I say darlin', I feel wonderful tonight._

_It's late in the evening, I've got an aching head,_

_I give her the car keys and she puts me down to bed._

_And Then she asks me darling, do you feel alright?_

_I say darlin', you don't realize just how much I love you._

Her car was parked down at the end of the street, trying not to signal that she was going to the party at all, just in case one of her Dad's many friends lived in the area. The _'SUPST4R' _on the license plate would have given her car away. Her parents wouldn't be able to tell where she was right now. She stopped caring after they called her a couple dozen times since she left the house.

Finn was right, and it was starting to annoy her. She was protected and sheltered to much. She couldn't even go out on the town without one of her father's trying to contact her. She knew that they were just making sure she was safe, but that's a phone call every few hours, not a few phone calls every hour on the hour. That was just to much. One giant massacar of her cell phone voice malibox and her minutes. Over kill at it's finest.

Rachel walked down the street towards the address on the flyer. She could hear the blaring music a street over, but just the muffled sound of it. If she was in a house next door, she would have sworn that there was an earthquake going on.

When she got closer, she could hear people yelling, and trying to talk over the music. It's a very stupid concept to her. She never understood why people, especially young adults would go some where to just kill brain cells and act like complete morons. The whole thing was below her. It was just in the way of getting to her Oscar and her Tony. Even though most actors and actresses are drugies and alcoholics, that didn't matter. She chose to live her life seeing though sober eyes and she was happy that way. Proud of herself for not giving into peer pressure.

Although that doesn't mean she didn't think about trying it. She flashed back in her mind of how hard it was for her to stand being bulimic, and she was sure that she wouldn't be able to handle the drugs either. For Rachel, it was hard to fit into the crowd. It was as if it wasn't supposed to fit, like God was hoping that she was miserable constantly and how she was just supposed to be hated by every minority of the school.

The thought made her tense a bit. She was never comfortable in those high pressure situations, and now she was going to barge into a party where she was almost positive she wouldn't know anyone other then Puck. Something she'd never do. She would have to feel slightly comfortable to do something this drastic, and right now comfortable wasn't in her thought process. But she had to do this for Finn, and for Puck's sake.

Getting closer to the front lawn, she starting thinking about how she was actually worried about Puck. This was another thing that was out of the normal for her. She wouldn't be caught dead caring about Puck, or doing anything to help him at school. Now something made it different. She couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but it was something that did scare her. It made her feel something other then complete hate for him. She wouldn't dare say that she was starting to _like _Noah Puckerman and all his badass glory.

She got to the bushes that seperated her from the rage of teenagers with booze and drugs. She was definetly nervous, but she had to do this. She was brave enough to do this, but just in case, she clutched her purse tighter. Her purse that contained her life line that was her only defense to save her if someone got to close. Her cell phone to call the cops, and her pepper spray just incase of a possible rapist. Her parents may have sheltered her, but this was on her own ways of keeping herself safe.

Rachel took a deep breath in and started her treck up the already cup infested front yard.

There was music blasting so loud you couldn't have heard yourself think. You couldn't hear the person next to you talking, rather screaming a conversation at you. Maybe even go as far as saying that you couldn't have heard anyone doing anything for the next few days. Rachel should have brought ear plugs along, just in case, but she didn't because she thought that it wasn't going to be this loud. Boy was she wrong.

She got odd looks from people walking down the lawn past her, and some dirty one's from girls in the lawn obviously gossiping about someone. Probably Rachel. She was still in most of what she wore to school, although she now wore pants instead of her school skirt she wore 3 out of the 5 school days. Regular jeans, which was out of the normal for her dressing code. She did still have on her dress shirt, but together it looked like a sort of casual look. Whatever the girls could say to her wouldn't change her way of acting. She was comfortable with how she dressed. She did it for success, not to be fashionable.

They watched as Rachel walked up the steps and into the front door, passing by a few drunk guys who thought that they could make it through the door with her all at the same time. It was a tight squeeze, but Rachel made it in. Although she wasn't prepared for the instant lung filling cloud of smoke that hit her in the face. She coughed up a storm, and squinted to see through the smoke filled, crowd of people. She had a hard time passing through the crowd, finding the stairs in the front hallway. She had a feeling that the bedrooms would be where she could find Noah.

Going up the stairs, she passed by people smoking ciggarettes, along with some of the people smoking out of soda cans. She remembered her Daddy telling her how people could make bowls to smoke pot out of with soda cans, water bottles, and pretty much anything they could poke two holes in. She moved by them quickly, trying to inhale as little as needed. The rest of the people on the stairs either had a red cup, or a bottle of beer in their hands. Bottles weren't safe, they could cause someone to get hurt.

Rachel rolled her eyes at a couple who had pinned themselves in the corner, making out sloppily. She could even tell that the guy's hand was up the girl's shirt. She swore right then and there that she would never be that girl. She'd never make out with some guy in a corner of a party, drunk off her ass. If that's what they were. They could have been on Ecstacy for all she knew. The only thing that was clear was that they were defiently fucked up beyond belief.

She moved even farther down the hallway, testing the doors. She was determined to find Noah before he turned out like the couple down the hall. She tried the first door, knocking first and since there was no answer, she opened the door. Lucky for her, the room was vacant. She continued on to the next door, sadly, there was a few people undressing in that room. She quickly surveyed the boy, but it wasn't Noah.

She closed that door, and shuddered a little moving onto the next room. Before she could open the door, someone with a very familiar mohawk stumbled out. He was using his sleeve to wipe his mouth, he held onto the banaster, looking down towards the floor. He was obviously wasted.

Rachel rushed to his side, "Noah. Are you okay?"

Puck got his vision in order and tried to straighten himself up more then he was, leaning his side against the banister.

"Berry? What're you doing here?" He squinted to see her better, "Why do you look normal?"

She could smell the alcohol on his breath. It was almost as bad as the smell of the whole house, but she just ignored it and tried to talk to Noah, "I'm here to find you. I want to get you out of here."

Another person came out of the room, this guy was a little taller then Puck. He had sort of long blonde hair, gages in both ears, just big enough to put a penny through, and he had a joint hanging out of his mouth. If Rachel wasn't mistaken, this guy was just as messed up as Puck was, but somehow this guy had a better way to keep his composure as if to actually look normal.

"Man, where ya' goin' off to now?" The guy giggled.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Who am I baby girl, who is you?" The guy said, trying to be smooth. He moved closer to Rachel, making her extreamly uncomfortable. She moved closer to Puck, even though he was staring down at the party that was raging under the floor beneath them.

"That's not important, I'm here to take Puck home." She said, turning to Puck.

"I don't want to leave. And that's not how you look. You don't have curly hair," Puck said, reaching out to touch it. She let him for the fact that she was humoring him. If she wanted to get him out of here, she would have to be nice. "I like your curly hair, have I ever told you that?"

"Not until just now." She said, letting the blush creep onto her cheeks like she didn't notice.

"Wow. Someone's got a case of the pink cheeks." Puck said giggling. He poked her cheek and laughed a slightly cute but very annoying laugh came out of his mouth.

Blush gone, "C'mon. I'm gonna take you out of here."

"No. I wanna stay." Puck complained, even when Rachel put his arm around her shoulders, attempting to drag him with her. He did protest, but he wasn't really trying to stop walking. If he had, she wouldn't have been able to keep up his weight and they'd stop in their tracks. The guy who was just talking to them waved bye to them with a crooked smile. He did so until a lady walked by and that switched his attention.

"I know, but I've got to get you out of here before you get to wasted." Rachel said, slowly helping him down the stairs. She was careful not to let him crash into anyone else who was crowding the stairs.

"Or, would I be just wasted enough?" He said laughing again, he ended up tripping over the last step, causing Rachel to stumble, but she regained her footing trying her best to balance Puck and herself to the point where she could actually walk out the front door with him on her arm.

"You're fine how you are. Can you put forth a little effort? You're heavy." Rachel said, getting him out the door, and carefully down the stairs in the front of the house. There were now more people in the front area, still staring at her. She rolled her eyes and readjusted him.

"First you call me fine, and then you call me fat. What're you tryin' to say, Berry?" Puck asked, getting very offended. Even in his trashed state, he was still aware of how fine he was. His ego never escaped him, never.

"You are very attractive, Noah, but you're a lot bigger then I am." She said, struggling to get him down the lawn, making sure to move through the cups and trash, and even some barf before they got to the relativley clean sidewalk. That was a releife for Rachel, she was only a few cars down from her own car. She was just going to drive Puck home and then everything was going to be fine.

"I don't feel so good..." Puck said, standing up straight, and leaning backwards a little. Rachel got a break from keeping most of his weight on her.

"I bet you don't. But it's okay, I'll have you home soon enough." Rachel said, tugging on him to follow her. He did, but he was a little hesitant.

"I can't go home. My mom will kill me. She can't know about this. Take me to Finn's." Puck said as he stumbled his way to follow her.

She was thankful that he could form complete sentences. Bring Puck home to a house that didn't want him there in this state would have made everything she was trying to fix worse, "Okay, I'll take you there."

"Shit," Puck said, "I can't go to Finn's. He'd kill me, too."

Pusk was trying to actually think. He was attempting to shake off the feeling of being completely dizzy and nauseas and tried to get a grasp on what he could do.

"I've got no place to go. Just let me go back to the party."

"No. You can come over to my house." Rachel said before she could think about it. She may have it all together a majority of the time, but she does have a tendency to react in a split second, letting her words do the work. Her words just don't always work how she imagined them.

Before Puck could give her a reply, he felt the not so good sensation of something creeping up his throat.

"Oh Noah!" Rachel said rushing to his side. Puck was throwing up in a bush. He was sort of jerking towards the bushes every time stuff came out. Rachel was rubbing his back, trying to make him feel comforted. Surprisingly, it did.

Puck finished shortly after he started. Rachel took his hand gently, "C'mon, I've got some water in my car."

He let her hold his hand until they got to the passanger's side of the car. Puck was slowly coming down from his drunken self, and he was starting to crash. He didn't want to fall asleep, but he had a feeling if he didn't get somewhere soon, he was going to end up passing out.

Rachel got him into the passanger's side car, and found the water bottle in the glove compartment. He took it without really questioning it. It was better then having the taste of puke in his mouth. He swished and spit it out the window as Rachel got in the car, "I guess that'd be fine... What about your dad's? Would they care?"

"They're out with my grandparents, they'll be out until the morning, there's really no need to worry about them." Rachel said reassuringly.

That took a weight off of Puck's shoulders, now he didn't have to have a repeat of last night. He had somewhere to go, and for some reason going to Rachel's house peaked his interest more then he could have though.

"How much did you really drink?" Rachel asked, pulling out onto the street. Puck was looking out the window at the house he just left. He could feel the sound through the car.

"I only had five or six beers. That's not a lot for me. I'm just a little fucked up." He said. He cringed as the first wave of his headache hit him. This always happened when he drank. He wasn't sure why but it only happened to him, not any of his other friends.

"You seem very messed up." Rachel said.

"I'm not. The puking means that I'm getting off my whole drunk thing..." He trailed off, taking another swig of water. He was coming down from his buzz faster because of the water, thank God.

"Oh."

It was silence for the rest of the ride. By the time they got to Rachel's house, Puck was almost passed out. She made sure to keep him awake enough to get him into the house. They trugged up the stairs and Puck was leaning against the door without realizing it. Needless to say when Rachel opened the door, Puck fell.

"Crap, Noah. Are you okay?" She said, leaning down to him. The rest of the house was dark except for the pourch light that was shining in from the open door, and the light that was accidently left on that was very near the door. Puck leaned up and put his elbows down so that he was leaning against them. He felt like a ton of bricks were just dropped on his head. He could have sworn that his vision was messed up too because in this light, Rachel looked gorgeous. She didn't look hot, she didn't look sexy, she looked absolutely beautiful. "Noah?"

He snapped out of it, "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You fell pretty hard and it looked like you hit your head." She said.

Puck started moving up so he could fully get up, as Rachel moved out of the way. So much for trying to help him. He got up and shook off the headrush, "I'm fine."

"You promise?"

"I promise." Seriously, a promise. Puck thought that was one of the only times he's heard someone say that since he was in middle school. She closed the door behind him as he just stood there, not really sure of what to do.

_Silence._

"Do you want anything?" She asked, trying to do something other then stand there like an idiot.

"Just a place to crash." Puck stated. He felt nervous. This was his first time over at Rachel's house. He had a way of avoiding it at all costs, just in case. Now he found himself needing to be there.

His heart actually started to beat harder when she said, "You can sleep in my room, I guess. My dad's would be pretty upset if they found you on our couch unannounced. I'm not supposed to have anyone over anyway, but it's fine for a night."

"Okay..." Puck said, following Rachel up the stairs. He looked at all of the pictures of Rachel that lined the wall up the staircase. He saw her in a bathing suit at the beach, or at one of the lakes around here. There was one of her riding on a horse, one of her in a ballet dress getting ready for a recital. Then he saw one of her at what had to be a recient wedding. She was in a light purple dress with no straps, and a ribon of black circling around the top where her breasts were. The dress was pretty short, and it had a way of shimmering in the flash of the camera. Her make up was done beautifully, and she had a head of straight hair that suited her very well.

"What're you staring at?" Rachel asked from the top of the stairs.

"This picture. You look good." He said, getting over the shock of her watching him. He hadn't even realized.

"Um... Thank you." She said. Score two for the blush.

Puck got the rest of the way up the stairs and followed her to her bedroom. It was a ligh yellow, that kind of made his nauseaus feeling worse. She turned on a lighted fan and he got a good view of the rest of it. There was her own bathroom, a balcony and a big window. There were pictures on the wall of artists and broadway musicals. Her bed was big enough for both of them to lay on.

Rachel went over to her dresser and pulled out some basketball shorts and a large t-shirt. She went towards the bathroom and cleared her throat. Puck looked at her, and noticed what she was doing. Giving him clothes to sleep in.

"Knock before you come out, I'm going to trust you enough to change in here while you're in there." She said, handing him the clothes as he walked into the bathroom. He rolled his eyes, like he actually wanted to see her naked.

She closed the door for him, and walked over to her dresser again. Rachel didn't know why, but she felt nervous. Maybe it was because it was her first time having a guy sleep over. Maybe it was because she didn't know if she was going to get caught by her dad's. Maybe it was just that it was _Puck. _

She shook her head to stop thinking that. There was no way she was actually into Puck. That's the darkest thing that anyone could have ever thought of. Puck wasn't her type. She liked tall, handsome, nice guys. Not that Puck wasn't taller then her, or that he wasn't nice, and even she had to admit that he was pretty damn handsome.

Again she shook her head. She dismissed the thought and put it to the back of her mind.

She pulled out a pair of purple silk shorts that barley reached half way down her thighs, her favorites to sleep in, and a white tank top. She started undressing when there was a knock on the bathroom door, "I'm not ready, hold on."

Puck was frustrated. He was trapped in a bathroom with light that was making his head feel even worse, and it was actually pretty hot in here. That'd been why he'd neglected to put the shirt she gave him on. He was just in the pair of basketball shorts, while his old clothes layed in a pile on her floor. He leaned against the cool tile that lined the wall of her bathroom. It soothed his body a little, but his mind was racing on things he could never have though possible.

He might actually sort of have feelings other then hate for Rachel Berry. He didn't know why, but it felt good to know that she cared. When she showed up at the party, Puck wasn't planning on drinking. He saw her from out the window when he was with his friend Justin. They were in a room where they were smoking out of a bong. Puck wasn't in the mood to actually party, he just didn't want to be somewhere that Finn would know to look for him. She was walking up the lawn when he saw her. He was not ready to deal with her, so the only thing he could think to do was to numb the pain.

That's when he decided to hit the bong, chug a beer, hit the bong, chug a beer, until he felt that his mind was going to explode. He couldn't process where he was, and he somehow managed to stumble out of the room. Justin was worried so he followed him after he heard Puck crash into the side of the banaster. That's got to be the best timing he could have had. Rachel was standing right there. He was happy that she was there. He thought that it was just the effects on his brain, but after he started going down from the buzz, he realized that it wasn't. He was happy that she was there in general.

His head was starting to feel better as he pressed his forehead against the cool tile. He was completely down from this night's experiences by the time she knocked on the door. He opened it and stepped out. She was fixing her side of the bed the way she liked it when he exited. Puck surveyed her and felt his heart pick up speed. Her curves were almost to much for him to handle. The way they worked down her body, around her hips and how they formed because of her chest would have made a pastor get a boner. The tank top was the perfect shirt to outline the curves.

"Where's your shirt?" He snapped out of his day dream because of her words.

"It's hot in your bathroom, and you made me wait in there for to long." He said going to the opposite side of the bed, putting the other shirt on the dresser.

"I'm sorry." Rachel said. She felt awkward. Her better judgement told her to get the blow up mattress out of the closet down the hall and make him sleep there, but after the night he had, she didn't feel like giving him anymore of a hard time. Her heart was racing as she pulled back the covers, and watched carefully as he did the same. He climed into the bed while she went over and turned off the light. The moon was the only thing showing her the way to the bed that Puck was already in.

Puck on the left; Rachel on the right. She climbed in and turned to face the window with her back to Puck, while he layed on his back. He wasn't as tired as he thought he was. That water must have done him more good then he had noticed.

Maybe a half an hour passed by, and Puck still wasn't asleep. He couldn't get all of these thoughts out of his head. He was dying to ask her one simple question.

"Rach...?" He asked in a soft voice. "You up?"

"Mhmm." Rachel had a hard time getting to sleep, too. She was thinking about how weird this was. How she still felt nervous, even after she tried to talk herself down from it.

"Why'd you come today?" He asked. He didn't want to hear that it was because of Finn. He wanted to hear something different. And honestly, he was terrified of her answer.

She took in a breath and let it out slowly, "Because I don't hate you like you assume I do, I actually care about you, Noah."

That was it. That was all he wanted to hear. He felt a slight, genuine smile creep onto his face. He shifted so he was closer to her, and she tensed up. What was he trying to do? She was even more nervous now. Her eyes opened, but she was afraid to turn around to see what he was doing.

She felt his chest press up against her back, and his arm reach around and held her gently. His head nuzzled closer to hers, almost burrying it into her hair. She could feel the beating of his heart, and was very surprised that it matched the beating of her own. Hard and rapid. She silently wondered if he had the goosebumps that matched hers as well; and if he felt the same way she did.

All he wanted was to hold her, "Thank you, Berry. I really appreciate it. And really, I don't hate you either."

She slowly, but comfortabley fell asleep with Noah Puckerman holding her like he didn't hate her either; he followed her lead, sleeping with a quick beating heart.

* * *

**AN: i'd love your input! :D **

vvvvvvvvvvvv**R&R**vvvvvvvvv


	3. Numb

**AN: **Don't worry, I'll be getting to the musical part of this soon. And can I point something out? I love how many of you guys are alerting my story and whatnot, but could it hurt that much to add a review to it? How am I supposed to know that I'm doing a good job, and hitting everything you guys want to see if I don't get feedback? Good or bad, **it's appreciated.**

* * *

**Numb - Fallbrooke;**

_I took her around the evening bay,_

_She doesn't care what morning brings while she lays with me_

_And everytime I defend myself_

_I end up pushing you away a lifetime._

_I started to buy in_

_to all the things that everyone wanted me to be,_

_But you can't just live by what people say,_

_I'm numb from all the things I've tried to be,_

_And all along you never turned away._

Rachel sturred in her sleep. She wasn't ready to get up. She just had the best sleep she's had since she was a baby. Or so to say. Babies rarely get a good night sleep now that she thought about it. Regardless of how she put it, she slept very good. She wasn't exactly sure why.

_Maybe it was because Noah slept with you last night, _Her inner voice said.

Her eyes opened and she was almost blinded by the sun pouring into her window at a horribley bright angle. She squinted into the glare and moved to lay on her stomach, burrying her face into her pillow, trying to hide it from the light. That was a very rude awakening. She moved her face so she was looking away from the sun and saw Puck. He was very cute when he was sleeping. She didn't even feel his hand was on her back, like he was trying to make sure she wasn't going to leave in the middle of the night. It was down on the bottom of her back, where her shirt just so happened to be up around the bottom of her boobs.

She wanted to fix her shirt, and do something productive since she was already up, but having Puck's hand on her made her think twice about moving. At least until a cool wave of air hit her legs. She looked down even farther. Apparently Puck was a blanket hog.

Rachel rolled her eyes and moved Puck's hand.

She was worrying for nothing. Puck didn't filnch, move, or stur in his sleep. She fixed her shirt and threw her legs over the side. The sun was still bright. She would have swore that she'd sue the sun for being so damn bright, but sueing the sun was probably out of her lawyers jurisdiction.

Her wood floor was cold, which shouldn't have been much of a surprise to her after living in the house her whole life. She flexed her toes and got up, careful not to completely shake the bed. She walked over to her dresser, with the floor only creaking slightly under her gentle steps. She grabbed her phone off of the table and flipped it open. She had a text message from her daddy:

_'Grandpa and Grandma have the flu, we're going to stay up here for a while and help out. I hope that's okay with you, Darlin'. See you soon! We love you.'_

She sighed, she should probably call them. She took the phone and exited the room. Walking down the hallway a little, she hit her speed dial number 2 and called her dad's. It was around 9 o'clock and that was actually late for her father's.

"Hello?" Her dad's voice said.

"Hey Dad."

"Oh, hey baby girl. How're you? Everything alright?" He said with a hint of worry in his voice.

"Yes, Dad. Everything's fine. I was just calling to check in." She said, leaning against the banister. She attempted to pull out some of the nots in her hair with her fingers, but it hurt to much to keep going.

"She should have done that last night when we _tried _to call her." She heard her Daddy say.

"Probably should have told you that I put you on speaker," Her Dad say, she could hear the smile in his voice. She loved how in love her parents were. Compaired to the other people of the world, she was sure that her Dad's were only a tiny percent of married couples that actually loved the other. A lot of the people just stay together because they've got kids, or they can't afford to get a divorce. She was happy her parents were different. "Anyway, is everything okay there?"

"Yeah, Dad. Everything's fine and dandy." She said, _except for the sleeping teenage boy in my bed._

"I'm glad to hear it, kiddo." He said. Rachel heard an awful sound in the background of someone coughing violently.

"Hold on, Mom. I'm comin'. Rach, we've got to go tend to the parents. I'll call you later." He said quickly, there was a quick 'bye' from her Daddy, and then the sound of her phone ending the call.

She shook her head with a smile. She loved her parents.

Rachel started down the hallway, and down the stairs. She went into the kitchen to cook up a little something for her guest.

* * *

Puck slowly got his conciousness together. His eyes started opening after 4 minutes of trying to go back to sleep. It's a frustrating thing not being able to sleep when you haven't had a decient sleep in a while, and it was your first time in a long time. His arm went up to rest on his forehead and it rested on it, putting pressure on his already aching head.

He could remember exactly what happened last night. He partied, and fell asleep holding onto _Rachel. _That's the part that was out of the normal. Something he didn't understand. He was relativley in his right mind last night, but he fell asleep doing something he would have only done when he was shit faced. Right...? Only if he was shit faced...

Then why did he like it so much? He was completely comfortable with her in his arms. If he could control what he could do in his sleep, he would have stayed there all night. He fell asleep with his heart racing, which was pretty impossible. He didn't know why it worked so well this time. He's tried to sleep on Ecstacy a few times, and that stuff makes his heart go insane. Oddly, so did being around Rachel.

He had to admit, he was actually sort of scared of Rachel. He wasn't in touch with the emotions she brought up in him. He felt nervous, happy, and like he was on an adrenaline rush all at the same time. Call him an addict, because he was slowly starting to get addicted to the way she made him feel.

That was another thing Noah Puckerman could have never expected to happen.

He took the blankets off a little more, looking over to where Rachel would have been. _Should_ have been.

Puck had a pang in the bottom of his stomach. Did Rachel move in the middle of the night? Was she uncomfortable in his arms, or sleeping with him in general? Did he do something to her last night? Fuck, did he get a boner in his sleep?

He sat up in almost a panic.

Could he have already ruined something that could have been great in his life? AGAIN? This was getting ridiculus.

He was going to go look for here when there was a noise coming up the stairs.

Another state of panic. What if her parents were home?

Puck didn't want to be banned from her house. He actually liked being over here, he felt safe. Some kind of feeling he could definetly get used to. He got up as quietly as he could, and made his way over to her closet that was on the same wall as the door. He could feel the vibrations of the footsteps getting closer to the door. He opened her closet trying not to let the creaking become that loud. As soon as he got into the closet, the door opened. He shut the door when the other door opened.

He watched as Rachel walked into the room with a tray of something smelling really good, especially to his completely empty stomach. He hadn't eaten since the day before at lunch. All the contents of last night couldn't be helping his hunger situation.

Rachel walked over to the bed and set the try down. She was confused. Where could Puck have gone? The bathroom door was open, and she doubted that he was the type of guy that would pee with the door open and not care who saw what he was doing in there. Dispite the slushies to the face, and all of the harsh actions towards her, she'd noticed that Puck _was _a gentelman. Contrary to everyone's belief.

But that didn't explain where he was.

"Great..." She said to herself.

"It's good to see you, too." He said from behind her. She turned to see him standing in his closet. He was leaning against the wall where the door to the closet opened, smirking at her. "You didn't think I'd leave, did you?"

She blushed and looked away from him, turning back to the breakfast she prepared for him.

He scratched his head, leaving his smirk on his face. He walked up next to her but turned so that he could take a seat on the bed. He hit the bed a little harder then he was trying to. The tray rose a little and went back down, almost spilling the tray over onto her bed.

"Puck! Be careful!" She said, grabbing onto the tray and keeping it steady.

His head shot up. He looked at her with a confused face, "What did you just say...?"

"I said be careful. What are you? In kindergarden?" She said. If that would have spilt onto her expensive sheets, and even more expensive pillow top comforter, Puck would have been paying over 500 dollars to replace it. Not including what could have happened to the bed.

"No... You called me Puck." He said, almost studdering. That was probably the first time she's ever called him Puck. During their first incounter, Mr. Figgins had yelled at him for a slushie to the face of Jacob with the jewish afro. Figgins' had called him Noah, and she called him that ever since. It was weird to hear her say that.

"Oh. I guess I did," She said, she found it as weird as he did. Rachel noticed that Puck looked like something was really wrong. "Is that bad?"

"No. No. Don't worry. It was just... Off?" He said, trying to find the right word to fill in.

"Yeah... Sorry..." She said. She scratched her arm and shook it off. Even though it did scare her that she went that out of character. "Anyway, here."

Rachel gave him a bowl of something that was a tan color, and it looked like it had little peices of egg in it. It had the consistancy of Oatmeal, but it wasn't, "Rach... What is this?"

"It's an old Berry family recipe. It's used to clean out your system after you've had a night of heavy drinking."

Puck put the bowl up to his face and took a wiff. As soon as the smell hit his nose, he started coughing. "What's that smell?"

"I'm not sure... There's raw eggs, a little Pepsi, grits, and some hamburger. It could be any of it." She said, moving the tray down to the floor as she sat next to Puck, watching him.

"Do I have to? I'm kind of scared..." He said, moving the spoon around in the mush. The spoon actually got stuck in it, so he couldn't move it. They both looked at each other, and smiled. Not that forced smile that they used to give to each other, because of both of their friendships with Finn. For his sake, they both tried to act civil towards each other. Now, it wasn't so forced. More like they had to force it not to happen.

"No. I know. It's pretty grotesque. I think this might also be used to put cement on houses." She said.

Puck laughed, "That was a good one."

"I try."

He laughed again. Wow. She was actually sort of funny when she wasn't being all anal about herself. He didn't feel the need to rip his eyes out with a pair of rusty scissors, or rip his own head off and hope to God his spinal cord went with it, or his favorite: made him want to light himself on fire.

She felt the same way. Seeing him smile for real, kind of made her heart speed up in a way she definetly wasn't used to. She only got this feeling when Finn was around, and even then it wasn't _this_ extensive. She felt like she was going to puke, but in a good way. This was a complicated feeling, even for the Queen of Complication.

They were still locked in a gaze.

His eyes were gorgeous. The most amazing green outline, with a slightly lighter green in the middle. It looked like someone colored the outline in a permanent marker, and colored the inside with a colored pencil. She just noticed that there was actually a hint of little brown specks in random spots.

Her eyes weren't a special color, nor did they have a sparkle in them, or any of the cliche things that someone would have said. Even though that was true, Noah couldn't stop staring. He loved the intensity of her eyes, and how they always looked slightly glazed over as if she was always day dreaming. For some reason, he could stay here for hours and just look at them.

Before he knew what he was doing, he felt himself moving closer to her by just moving his neck. She was doing it, too. Her eyes were diverted down to his lips, and Puck was moving his gaze from her lips, to her eyes.

That's when her phone went off.

They both jumped, and shook out of their trance.

Puck looked down at his hands that were on his knees, rubbing his legs as if they were freezing. He was trying to figure out what the hell he'd been thinking. This was RACHEL BERRY, and Noah Puckerman needed to get his head straight.

Rachel got up and grabbed her phone that was playing _Don't Stop Believing, _"Um... I'll be right back."

She exited out the room. She knew that ringtone, it was Finn. Until that moment, she forgot that Finn even existed. That was really weird for her, normally nine tenths of her day were devoted to thinking about him. Now with Puck in the equation, everything was different.

Walking down to the other end of the hallway, she clicked the accept call button.

"Hello?" She said. Her hand moved up to her mouth and she started biting on her thumbnail. She hadn't done that since her way to school her 6th grade year on the first day. She was way to confident to have anything shake her after that, but now she found herself nervous and unsure just talking on the phone to Finn.

"Hey Rach, you said you'd call me last night when you found Puck. What happened?" He asked. His voice sounded a bit annoyed, but a lot concerned.

"I know, it was sort of late and I was afraid I would wake you. I did find him though, he was at a party." Rachel said, easing out the word 'party' so he would take it easier.

"A party? What? He swore he wouldn't. God. What else did he do? I need to know." He said in a rush. He was so pissed at Puck. There was no way he was going to let Puck get back to where he was in freshman year.

"That was all. He got pretty drunk, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle. He was fine. I took good care of him," Rachel said, trying to calm him down. The sound of his voice made her calm down, and it was a good distraction from the situation in the other room. "But why is it so important you know every little detail?"

"Because of stuff he could become addicted to again. I'm not just talking about drugs either. I can't tell you any more then that. I'm already a bad enough friend as it is." Finn said. He was definetly upset with himself. Puck's been in so many different situations that were to hard for him to handle, that even as just someone to listen, Finn felt like he couldn't handle the information. This was to much, and to be honest, Finn didn't think that Rachel could handle it.

"Are you going to get mad at me for asking Noah?"

"Did you already do it?"

"No, but I was planning on it." Rachel said, she was becoming frustrated. She had a right to know what was going on, and what she should keep him away from. Finn was being difficult, and by being so easy to crack the first time, it made this time even more frustrating. She was already in on the first part of the problems, but she wasn't allowed to know any more then that? It didn't make sense.

"Don't. You won't be able to handle it." Wrong move there, buddy.

"Handle it? I won't be able to _handle _it?" She was pissed now. "If I can handle hitting all of the High F's in Defying Gravity, then I can handle a little teenage drama."

"A little teenage drama? Rachel, you've got no idea. Puck's been through more shit then you've seen on _Degrassi_ in all of it's seasons... Okay, maybe not, but he's been through a lot. And Degrassi's fake, this is the real world. It's worse then all of that." Finn said.

She huffed into the phone.

"You know what, Fine. Go ask him. I warned you." And that's when he hung up.

She took her phone off of her ear and shut it. She definetly pissed off now. What the hell? Why did he just assume that she couldn't handle it? She's watched enough T.V to know that she could handle whatever it was that he could.

Rachel stormed back down the hallway, pausing before she opened the door. She collected herself, because she knew that if she wanted answers, she couldn't lose her cool and blow up at Puck as if they were in school a few days ago. She opened up the door and walked in, closing it behind her.

"Puck, we need to talk..."

He was still sitting there, waiting for her to get back. He didn't try and pry into her conversation out in the hallway, he didn't even try and get any part of it. He was to busy thinking about what he was still doing there. The normal Puck would have been out of there as soon as he woke up. He would have called her some insult and left. That's just what he did.

Now he was different. He _wanted _to be there when she woke up. He _wanted _to see her first thing in the morning. He _wanted _to be there.

"About what?" He looked at her concerned, he was afraid she was going to kick him out or something. He didn't want to leave just yet.

"That was Finn... I want to know everything he won't tell me."

Okay, maybe he did want to leave. He stood up, "No."

Puck started walking over towards the bathroom, going to get his stuff.

"What? Why not?" She said following him, but he wasn't talking. He grabbed his stuff, throwing his shirt on and actually started taking his pants off so that he could change back into his jeans. She looked away from him. That was to weird for where they were right now. Having her staring at him when he was being so difficult wouldn't work.

"Because it's none of your fucking business, Rachel. It's mine. All mine. No one elses." He said moving past her and she didn't try to block him in the bathroom. Instead, she moved to stop by the door. Making sure that when Puck tried to make a break for it out the door, he wouldn't be able to leave unless he planned to go through her.

"I want it to be my business too. I know you've had a drinking problem," Rachel said and he laughed. "But I want to know the rest of it."

"You don't need to know the rest of it, Rachel. I don't try and pry into your personal life. I don't ask you to tell me stuff you don't want to. Fuck, I don't ask you to do anything. Why the hell do you even give a shit about what I've been through? What I've been keeping from everyone? Why the fuck does it matter so damn much to you?" Puck said moving so that he was standing in front of her, reaching for the door knob that was slightly beside her.

Rachel closed her eyes and looked down as she grabbed his hand. She intertwined it with his and looked up at him, "Like I said last night, because I care about you, Noah. I want to be here for you, and I can't be here for you if you don't give me all the details."

"Who said I wanted you to be here for me? I've got myself, that's the only person I need. The only person I can trust anyway." His voice rose. He was pissed and she knew it.

"Noah. You can trust me. Please just tell me..."

He looked away from her, and dropped her hand.

"Rachel... I-"

* * *

**AN: WHAT DO YOU WANT HIM TO DO? FREAK OUT AND LEAVE OR TELL HER?**

**VVVVVV Dooooo ittttt VVVVV**


	4. My Life For Hire

**AN: **In the last chapter, I probably should have specified that even though it might not be this chapter he WILL EVENTUALLY TELL RACHEL. I've gotten PM's from people thinking if they don't vote the right way, they're not going to get answers. Calm down people, it's gonna happen eventually.

**This chapter is dedicated to shaybay55. **Her review actually inspired me to do something that's going to be pretty good in a bad way. Hahah.

* * *

**My Life For Hire - A Day To Remember;**

_Somebody give me a sign,_

_That everything's going as planned,_

_And that everything falls away,_

_Into the darkness of this shallow place._

_The detail is striking, _

_The room's cold and frightening, _

_You'll kick and you'll scream, _

_You'll try everything to survive,_

_But you should know your fate by now._

He looked away from her, and dropped her hand.

"Rachel... I-" He said, stepping back away from her. "There's no way in hell I'm going to tell you this shit. It's my fucking business, not the world's. And lets face it, you can't fucking keep a secret. You tell everyone everything, or at least to anyone who'll listen, which is still to much."

"No I don't. Name one person-"

"Finn, Mercedes, Kurt, Tina. And if you tell them, it gets to the rest of the school. Glee's a code word for Gossip." He said. This was frustrating. Couldn't she take the hint that he didn't want to talk to her about his life story? Now he remembered why he hated her. She was to stubborn, and way to frustrating.

"I swear I won't tell anyone. You can trust me, Noah. I promise."

"You promise? A promise is just an empty word to fill a void when people want something. And no, I can't tell you. I can't trust you, I can't trust _anyone. _I can't even trust my best friend. If he would have kept his God damn mouth shut, I wouldn't even be in this situation." Puck said, retreating to the other side of the room towards her giant window that faced the front of her house.

Rachel was watching him pulling away her curtains and open the window, "What're you doing?"

"I'm leaving before I do something I'm going to regret." Puck said, throwing his stuff out the window.

He got half way out the window before Rachel could even think twice about what he was going to do. She rushed over the window, but he was already out. She couldn't believe that he actually jumped down to her lawn. From two stories up. He could have hurt himself really badly. Seriously, did he know how many people actually got injured jumping out of the second story windows in other towns? Oh hell, how many people got hurt jumping out of the first story window?

Puck was insane, and Rachel knew it.

"Noah, come back in here!" She yelled down to him. He just kept walking. She was now utterly upset with this man. She closed her window with a slam, causing Puck to look back and saw her walking away from the window. He rolled his eyes and kept walking down her lawn, turning left when he hit the side walk.

Rachel went away from the window, hurrying to her dresser trying to find her keys. She was going to go after him and get him to tell her. Berry's never give up, especially when it's something they wanted. And boy did she want this.

After looking all over her dresser, in her drawers, in her jewlery box, and even in her laundry basket. She couldn't find her keys in her room. She was running out of time. Puck could have been more then halfway down the street by now. Rachel threw on a pair of sweat pants, and left her shirt the way it was. She rushed down the stairs, and looked all over the kitchen. The one time she actually needed one of those key-locater things, she didn't have one. The stupidity of her actually losing her keys when she was as organized as she was could have only made it worse.

The kitchen wasn't the place to look. She couldn't find them there either. Her sense of ergency was fading pretty fast. He could have been blocks away by now. She walked over to the front door, opening it to see if he'd stopped, or decided to come back. When the door opened, a sound of jingeling moved her eyes down to where the key hole was. Are you kidding me? She _really _left her keys in her front door. That was a first.

She took the keys out and closed the door behind her. She moved them around finding her car keys, but she had to turn around and lock her door. Puck was making her a scatter brain, and made it generally hard to focus on anything but him. The hate she was starting to become reacquainted with for him.

She walked down to her car in a hard rush. Opening her door, and slamming it behind her. She turned on her car and was ready to go find Puck, and give him a peice of her mind. Backing out of the drive way, she turned right down her street...

Puck on the other hand, was in the opposite direction. He really didn't know where he was going to go. Just like every fucking day of his life. He didn't feel like dealing with his mom right now. His mom wasn't the nicest person in the world, especially if he wasn't in a good mood. She'd eat at him until he'd storm off to his room and sneak out the window. She wouldn't even know he sneaked out.

He couldn't go to Finn's. If Finn didn't tell Rachel about stuff going on in his life the other night, he could have, but not now. There wasn't much trust there. He'd probably run and tell Rachel that he was there. Finn was whipped by two girls. Quinn and Rachel. Both insanely bitchy, but apparently that was his fetish.

But honestly, where did Rachel get off telling Puck what to do? _"Noah, come back in here!" _What the fuck was that? She wasn't his mother. If she was, he'd put himself up for adoption to get rid of her fucking nagging, and controlling nature. If he had to live with her full time, he would have surely already either commited, or attempted suicide.

It made him feel like shit. He hated being ordered around. That's another reason why he hated the school so much. The only reason he could stand being at football practice, was because he could take out his anger on everything and everyone. That made it worth while. Taking his anger out on idiots that don't have the skill enough to actually get a good spot on the team, in other words with people that sucked.

Ordering him around wasn't a way to get on his good side. Rachel needed to be on his good side if she wanted to get into his head. Finn had. Finn had faith in him when no one else gave a shit about him. He knew Puck could do a lot better, and he helped him get throught a lot the past few years they'd been friends. He'd been the first person to actually try and step in. He helped Puck in an active way. He didn't order him to stop. He gave him steps to take to help him get clean in time, not making him stop all at once. No drug addict, or anyone for that matter, actually had the ability to just stop. Unless shock therapy was on the menu. Even that wasn't a definet.

Puck stopped walking for a second when he got to a fork in the road. To the left was a road that kept him in the neighborhood that Rachel lived in. She was sure to find him if he kept on that track. A part of him wanted her to find him, but that part of him wasn't that big.

He took a right, making his way out of her neighborhood.

The cars were moving faster on this road. He attempted to keep his mind off of the blowout he just had with Rachel, so he checked out most of the cars on his way down the street, looking back every now and then to make sure he didn't see Rachel's car following him. The cars in Lima were nothing to be ashamed, or pleased of. They were your normal type of cars that ran good, and looked okay. From past experiences with his childhood, before he got into high school, he was really into cars. He could do wonders with a lot of engines, and he was even pretty good with the rest of the cars. His uncle called him a "child prodigy with a car".

As some of the cars drove on down the street, Puck would listen to them and look over them. He'd pick out things that could be fixed with the cars that needed it. A Honda Pilot needed a serious tune up, a red Volvo needed to fix his axel because the steering alignment was off, and a red and white Ford F-250 had something leaking out from under the car. He assumed that it was either oil, or some deisel draining from a hole in the gas tank.

He could fix that.

The Ford actually turned into Hummel Motors on it's way to get the leak checked out probably. Puck did a double take when he saw Kurt walking out to the truck in a pair of overalls and a blue sweater that probably was some big name in fashion's latest look. That didn't make sense. How could someone so feminine be able to work on a car and be able to actually achomplish fixing something like a car? Puck some what envyed Kurt's job. It was definetly better then his pool cleaning business, even if the pool's belonged to some fine ass mothers. Literally.

Kurt motioned for the truck to move into one of the openings in the garage when Kurt looked out onto the street. He waved to Puck who was still walking along the side of the road. Puck waved back as Kurt turned on his heels and walked his "strut" back into the garage. Puck rolled his eyes and started walking a little faster.

Even though Kurt came out to everyone in Glee, people outside of the school could probably tell that Kurt was gay. I mean, it's one of the most obvious things that people can notice about someone. It's a pretty hard thing to hide. At least it is when you're Kurt. There's a rumor going around that even his father knew he was gay when he was only like 3 or somewhere around there. It's pretty amazing how that can happen. It's pretty weird.

Know what else is pretty weird? The fact that no matter where Puck is in the world, there's always someone from his past there to find him.

A car coming from behind Puck pulled up next to him, almost scaring the shit out of him. Not just for the fact that it was a random car he'd never seen before, but because the car was driving up from behind him, when the cars were supposed to be moving towards him on that side of the street.

"Hey Puckerman." Said the driver of the car. It was an old style Lincoln, with a busted out tail light.

It was his good ol' friend Justin, "Justin, what the hell are you doing?"

He looked over who was in the car. A chick with blond hair, and quite a few piercings down her ear. She had her hair up in a pony tail, with some of her bangs covering her face. A white tank-top with a pink bra, skinny jeans that were ripped up and sandles. Not to forget the cigarette in between her fingers. There was another guy Puck recognized as Dougie, one of the best dealers in Lima. Puck and Dougie were close at one time, but they stopped talking when Puck stopped dealing.

"I'm pullin' over to help a friend out. Get it. We're going downtown to have some fun." Justin said, smirking at Puck. The girl laughed and put the cigarette to her lips.

Dougie slid over and rolled the window down with the hand crank, "Yeah dude, you haven't hung out with us in a while. It's been lonely without you brother."

Puck shook his head with a tiny smile remembering all the fun he'd had with the guys back in the day.

"So you gettin' in or not?" Justin said nodding towards the back seat. Cars were swerving to miss a collision with Justin's car, and honking like mad.

"Scoot over." He said to Dougie as he opened the door and climbed in next to him.

"Thank God. It's to fucking early for this noise." The girl said, glaring out the window. They started down the street, still on the wrong side until one car almost hit them, making them swerve into the lane they should have been in.

"Don't mind her. She had a rough trip last night."

"And we're not talking about going on a long vacation." Dougie said, laughing his old high-as-fuck laugh. Puck could tell he was just coming down from whatever he decided to get high on today. Dougie was the best dealer because he actually tried all of the stuff he would put out on the market. You name it, he's done it. There's been a rumor around that he's even done Crystal Meth, but he's never denied, or supported that rumor. Puck didn't really care what he did, as long as it wasn't killing him. Out of all the smokers and druggies he's ever been around, Doug was probably his favorite. His outlook on life was what Puck wanted.

Then again, Dougie was in his early twenties and going no where with his life. Except on some kind of trip every night.

Dougie's out look was just to go with the flow. He didn't believe in fate, and he didn't believe in all of the stuff that could be wrong in the world. He lived one day at a time, actually appreciating life instead of worrying about where he was going to be going the next day. He was the most down to earth person that Puck's ever been able to have in his life. He's been through so much shit, Puck felt like he was literally the only person on the Earth that's actually able to get him.

'_What's the point in worrying about what's going to happen the next day? It's not like you're actually guarenteed a tomorrow. You could have a problem today that's going to be gone by tomorrow. The way that I live, I wouldn't be surprised that if I went to sleep one night, and never got up. I'm expecting Death sooner then everyone's anticipating. I know it's going to happen one day. Until then, life's whatever. I'm not searching for some dumb fuck reason. I'm just waiting until my time's up.'_

Those words were some of the few that Puck wouldn't ever forget. Doug was definetly wise for his age. No matter what people said. Sure, he had his stupid moments, but believe it or not, those only happened when he wasn't high. All of his thoughful moments happened when he's been high. Except when he pretended he was a dragon one time, and actually tried to blow fire... That didn't turn out so well.

"Oh. Puck, that's Shelby. Shelby's from upper Lima. Dude, you know they've got the dopest shit up there? Seriously. We were up there last night blazin' like a storm," Justin went on, banging on the wheel when he was trying to put more power to what he was saying. Dougie was giggling to himself about Justin's actions. Puck smiled at him, and let Justin keep going on about his obsession. "You know that Blueberry Yum Yum? Yeah, well these bitches have fucking vanilla and cherry flavored shit. Fuck it's good. Dougie smoked the last of it back into town. Joint hog."

That sent Dougie into another laughing fit.

"You've just gotta know the right people." Shelby said, tossing the cigarette's butt out of the window. She looked back at Puck, and smirked.

He smirked back and gave her that infamous look he had. The one that could make any girl's heart flutter, or make any mom think twice about her marraige.

"So, in that case I should be hanging around you more?" He flirted.

"Hold on!" Justin said looking at Puck through the rearview mirror, "She's mine dude."

Shelby started laughing. Puck smiled again, "Sorry bro. You didn't mention that."

"It's cool. It's whatever," Justin shrugged. "So you ridin' with us or do you want a ride somewhere?"

Puck thought about it. He wanted to get away. He wanted to forget about what had happened with Rachel. He wanted to get her out of his mind. The only way he could think of to do that was to be with the two biggest trouble makers he could think of. Justin and Doug....

Rachel pulled up in front of Finn's house. She'd just spent two and a half hours trying to find Puck. It was already starting to get darker outside. She searched through her purse that was laying on the passanger's seat, looking for her phone. She was frustrated, and not being able to find her phone was making everything more agitating. She almost had herself cursing in frustration over what was going on. That's not something she found herself doing most of the time.

She found it, and saw that it had an unread text message. She prayed that it was from Puck, saying that he wanted to talk.

Her chest sunk a little when she saw that it was just Jacob, sending her the usual text. A picture of himself in a speedo, or some type of underwhere that was showing way to much of his pale skin off. His redish body hair made him all the more unattactive. She exited out of the text as soon as she saw it. Rolling her eyes she dialed her third speed dial. Finn.

The phone rang twice before Finn answered, "Hello?"

"Finn, it's Rachel, can you come out side? I'm here." She said, taking her keys out of the ignition, making sure that she had them in her hand before she locked and exited her car.

Finn hung up on her, saying a quick bye. And threw on his pants. He was just planning on chilling in his underwear and his t-shirt all day, playing Halo and maybe switching to Left4Dead 2. He left his room and went down the stairs and out the front door.

"Hey Rach. What's going on?" Finn said. He sounded a little nervous. The truth is, the fact that Rachel didn't call him last night made him worry both for Puck's safety and condition, along with what could have happened between Rachel and Puck during the night if she really did find him. He went up next to her, and gave her a quick hug. She felt some butterflies, but not like how she felt last night.

She sat on the front of her car, and Finn stood in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest in a slouching manner.

"I found Puck, he spent the night so I know he was safe all night," Finn had to hold back his intake of breath, and the sigh that would have followed it. "But we fought this morning, because he very stubbornly refused to tell me everything that was happening in the past, as well as last night. He ended up jumping out my window-"

Finn started laughing, "He's got a way of making an exit. He jumped off my roof once."

She hit him in the arm and he stopped, holding it in pain.

"This isn't funny! He could have been seriously hurt, and I would have had to take him to the hospital and risk a law suite." Rachel said sternly. "Anyway, we fought and he left and I don't know what to do. Where would he go? He's obviously not here otherwise you'd know all of this already."

"Yeah, he's not here." He didn't like that Rachel sounded paniced. It was sort of scaring him that Rachel cared this much about Puck. They were constantly at each other's throats, this didn't make a whole lot of sense. "Did you push him?"

"Out the window? Of course not!"

"No, I mean push him the way you do. To get him to tell you whatever you wanted to know. Were you persistant?"

"Yeah, how else am I supposed to get an answer out of him? He's so stubborn." Rachel said crossing her arms over her chest and poppin' that famous Berry attitude.

"That doesn't work with Puck. He'll run away before he tells you anything." Finn said with a shrug.

"Well? Where else would he go?" Rachel asked.

"He might have went home, but I don't think he'd be there. He hates his house."

Before Finn could get that out, Rachel was already off the hood and heading towards the driver's side door. "Thank you, Finn. I'll call you later and tell you if I find him."

She opened the door and jumped in closing the door when Finn was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Rachel drove off in the direction of Puck's house.

"Bye?" He said watching her car dissapear down the road with a confused look on his face.

She prayed to the heaven's that Puck was going to be at his house, no matter what Finn said about him hating it.

Rachel knew the way to Puck's house from over hearing him giving a girl directions when she was in her locker and the girl was the owner of the locker right next to her's. It hit her in the stomach that it was actually making her slightly jealous that he'd given a girl that wasn't her directions to her house now that she thought about it.

590 West Broker's Street. The third townhouse on the right.

She found her way there in no time. It was only about 5 blocks away from Finn's house, and it was no wonder that where Puck went was Finn's house. The closeness must have just been a bonus for their friendship. She drove up to the spot on the curb in front of their house and looked around.

The house was nothing like Finn's and Rachel's. The grass in the front yard was barely a shade of green, it was basically just dirt. There was a beware of Dog's sign in the front fence, but no dog to be seen. The house itself didn't look as horrible as it's front yard. It was a single story house that was made out of bricks. It could have gone back pretty far, but from what she saw it couldn't have more then 3 total bedrooms. The roof was white, and they had a front pourch that was pretty well attended to. The door was a dark brown color, and it looked like it was made out of real wood. The house wasn't horrible, but it wasn't that great.

There wasn't a single light on, and there wasn't a car in the driveway. Damn. There was no way he could have been home. At least he wasn't there when she got there.

Rachel needed to find him. There was only one place she hasn't looked...

After they made the pit stop downtown to pick up some weed, and a little bit of coke, to sell down on J Street. Puck had an ounce on him, and left the Coke with Justin. The night had picked up what was going on, and all over the dark back alleys were people dealing or waiting to find a dealer.

It was amazing how much people depended on getting their fix, and what some people would do to actually get it. Puck's seen many people doing the dumbest shit to get what they thought they needed from a dealer. Giving them watches, rings, jewlery, and he's even seen a girl giving a dealer a "special" prize if you get what that means. He himself hasn't had that happen, but he wouldn't deny it if it was offered. Small price to pay for some drugs.

Puck would have denied it if the girl was slutty looking or had something that could have resembled a past that included a lot of sleeping around. That small price wasn't worth some STD he could get. That part he's not okay with.

Justin parked his car down a few blocks away from the normal place they'd be for selling, just so that they couldn't link the car to the dealer. All four of them got out, Justin took Shelby along with him by placing an arm over her shoulder. Justin was taller then Puck, and he was defintly not as muscular. He had shaggy blonde hair that was just long enough to reach his shoulders, some of his hair hiding his gaged ears. He had on an old faded Nirvana T-Shirt that had a smiley face on it, and a pair of jeans that hung below his ass and being held up by a studded belt. He had rips in his jeans and Van's on his feet.

Dougie was wearing baggy shorts that had pockets everywhere. A cops worst nightmare if they were ordered to search him. His shirt was a tye-dyed one that was really baggy, but it looked freshly dyed. His hair went every which way, and was what Puck concidered a 'jew fro' because it matched that nerd Jacob's hair. He also had a scruffy beard that reached from his sideburn to his mouth.

They all started walking down the street towards their spot. All of the people who were regular's at J street knew that everyone had a designated spot. They all got their own alley, and they had every right to kick someone who wasn't supposed to be there out. You could concider the alley's an office for the people on the street. They sure as hell did. As long as you respected the code, you were fine.

They passed some of the dealer's actually making deals and said 'hi' to the one's that weren't having any luck. Dougie joked the entire way there along with Puck, while the new love birds were flirting and giggling at each other. Puck rolled his eyes at Justin who leaned over Shelby and started sucking on her neck.

"Have you ever wondered why people are so in love with being in love?" Dougie asked, looking up at the sky.

Puck shrugged, "I'm not in a hurry. I know love's just something to fake when you wanna get some."

"Naw man. You've got it all wrong. Love's put here to make people happy. Maybe that's why. People are always lookin' around until they find something that makes them happy. That'd be love for most people. It's fucking love for me." Dougie said.

"What're you talkin' about, bro? You're always happy." Puck said looking out at the cars to see the familiar ones that he's sold to before.

"Nope. I'm fakin' it. I mean, I've got my moments, but most of the time I'm pretty miserable. I lost my love. Evangeline. God, she was the dopest shit I've ever gotten high off." Dougie said, going into his classic dazed look, and adding a little more bouncing to his walk.

"She was a drug?"

"Naw, she was a girl. Just how she made me feel, got me high." Dougie said smiling thinking about her.

Puck smiled a little. He was glad that Dougie actually found someone that could make him happy. He'd never seen him in the mood of dating, and he'd never actually seen him with a girl he was interested in. Even he thought that everyone deserved to have someone that ment the most to them. It was just a matter of finding someone that could fit the discription.

"That's awesome, dude. But you know, you always answer your own questions." Puck said with a laugh.

"Yeah. I've noticed. Even though I have a way of forgetting that shit. It's hard to remember stuff when I've had holes in my brain from all that mother fucking Ecstacy I've got in my head since I was 13. Hell, I even forget how old I am half the time." Dougie spoke the truth, and it made Puck smile even bigger.

That's when he noticed a very familiar car parked next to his corner. The license plate gave it away.

"God damnit." He said, picking up the pace. Dougie followed suite, giving him a really confused look.

"Whuddup, dude?" Dougie said.

Puck walked up to the window of the car and looked in, all of her stuff was out there, screaming it was definetly her car. Soundtracks from Wicked, Spring Awakening, and West Side Story were all in her middle compartment.

"This is someone I know's car." Puck said, taking a step back.

"Really? It's a nice peice of work. I've seen a few guys checkin' it out from across the street." Justin said, nodding over to the corner that's across from there's. He yelled over to them. "Keep lookin'. This one's taken!"

They rolled their eyes at them and gave them a wave.

"Where is she?" Puck said quietly to himself, looking up and down the street.

"She?" Shelby said, "It's a girl? I hope she's got some mase with her down in this neck of the woods."

That's when Puck heard a scream come from an alley across the street and down a little. He didn't know what happened, but he just started running towards the scream...

Rachel parked her car in one of the safest spots she could find. She made sure to grab all of the things that actually mattered to her, which she stuffed all in her purse, but put her money in her pocket just in case.

She got out and clung to her purse tightly. She put her key's in her purse and started walking down the street, slowly taking the time to look down every alley to check to see what was going on down the way. All there was was black, with the faint outline of some fire escapes, and dumpsters.

Rachel was completley disgusted by the way all of this area looked. It was as if the whole place had been in some robbery by another part of the town, and all of the good was taken with it. She could smell a lot, but a lot of it actually smelled like puke and probably the smell of someone's pee on a wall. Her face twisted into some sort of cringe as she kept walking down the street.

She didn't see anyone for a while on this side of the street, so she decided to cross over to another alley that actually looked like it had some people in it. Then again, it was really dark so it was hard for her to see if they were really people, or something just in the shape of a person. The first thing that came to mind was go ask for directions to the nearest place to deal drugs, or if anyone had seen Puck.

A car went by, and she rushed over across the street, making sure to dodge the parked car that was in her way. When she saw that the shadows were people, she clutched her purse tighter and sucked in a breath. She walked towards them with her familiar determined walk.

"Hey there. Lookin' for a fix?" A guy said, getting out of the dark of the alley way and into the street light. Rachel found him to be a little attractive, but not like Puck. He was a sort of large man, not in a fat way, he was just large.

"No, but I was wondering if you could help me find someone." Rachel said, making sure she kept an eye on this guy, along with his friend that was watching them and she was sure that he was checking her out. Not really sure why though. She didn't have much to offer.

"Sure, who would that lucky guy be?" He said, looking back to his friend and sending him a wink which received a smirk.

"His name's Noah Puckerman."

The smile on the guy's face fell. He sent a worried look back to his friend. The friend gave a shrug and a motion with his hands that Rachel didn't really catch. She was more worried about the type of people on the street. If something happened, would someone step in and help her out? She looked back to the guys and the friend was standing abrormally close.

She was sort of taken aback, "Well?"

"Yeah, we know 'em. We actually just saw him. He's back in his 'office', or whatever you wanna call it. We'll take you there." The friend said with a gental smile.

The smile took her by surprise. Maybe this was actually someone good in this part of the town. She smiled back as they started to walk down the street, away from her car and towards another alley. They passed by some other guys who had cat calls coming after Rachel, which made her feel more nervous then flattered.

"Follow us, he's down here." The larger one said, letting his friend lead him. They started down a very nasty back alley, that must have had something dead in it because there were flies everywhere. They walked down past a garbage can and to a door. The friend knocked once as Rachel stood behind him.

She didn't notice that the larger guy went up behind her. If it wasn't for his hand covering her mouth, she wouldn't have even noticed...

Puck's heart was racing and he prayed that the scream that sounded all to familiar wasn't the one that belonged to Rachel. He slid almost falling completely to the ground when he reached the Alley that he recognized as the one that 'belonged' to Patrick and Ricardo. The worst people to be around on this entire street. Especially for people looking for Puck. Ricardo and Puck had a very bad history that started in middle school. Puck ended up breaking Ricardo's arm in 3 different places, and they've been fueding every since.

He took off down the alley, disregarding the smell and the horrible amount of bugs. He passed the first trashcan and saw the most horrible thing he's ever seen.

Rachel was fighting and screaming, with her limbs flalling around trying to hit and hurt everything around her. Ricardo had her up against the wall, and Patrick was trying to pry off her shirt. It was being ripped when Puck's instincts kicked in.

He turned Patrick around and punched him straight in the face, knocking him down the the ground in shock. Puck grabbed Rachel by the hand and pulled her away from Ricardo, who was ready for a fight. When Rachel was out of the way, he lunged at Puck who stumbled back a little bit, but ultimately held his ground. There was a hit to the stomach right after that and it was delivered by Puck. Fortunetly the punch knocked the wind out of Ricardo and he was gasping for air in a bent over position when Puck gave him a knee to the face.

There was blood on his jeans and blood pouring out of Ricardo's nose and mouth. Puck was sure there would be a few teeth on the ground around him. Ricardo was still trying to get up and fight, but Puck was better. With a punch to the chest, a punch to the jaw and a kick in the stomach, Ricardo was down for the count. His friend Patrick was already gone, probably fleeing from the crime scene as soon as things got rough.

Puck would have been on top of Ricardo some more if he didn't remember why he gotten into this fight in the first place.

Rachel.

He spun around and saw her leaning back against the wall on the ground, her head in her knees while they were pulled up into her chest. He rushed over to her and put her face gentely into his hands.

"Rachel. Rachel, hey. It's over." He said. Before he knew it, her arms were around him, grasping on for dear life. She was crying her eyes out. "It's fine, Berry. I'm right here. I'm gonna take you home, okay?"

She nodded. He slowly helped her up to her feet, holding onto her shoulder's and helping her out of the alley way and onto the lighted street.

Puck had them cross the street quickly, and noticed that Rachel still had her purse on her shoulder. That would have made him laugh in any other situation, but this was to much of a serious matter, "Can I have your keys?"

She gave them to him without a word. She just clung tighter to her purse and kept on sobbing, trying to calm herself down.

'_You'll be fine, honey. You've got Puck to protect you. He's not going to let anything happen to you.' _She kept reassuring herself.

"Bro, what the fuck happened?" Justin asked as soon as Puck got in hearing range. At first he ignored them and unlocked the car for Rachel. He took her around to the side and opened the door for her, and let her get in. She put her seatbelt on and stared blankley ahead.

"Ricardo and Patrick tried to be smooth and fucking rape her. Thank God I play football. I wouldn't have been able to make it there in time." Puck said quietly.

"Fuck, I'm gonna rip those sons of bitches in fucking two. How the hell do they think they can get away with this shit?" Justin said when Dougie got closer, he already got the story from standing a little bit away.

"They did it because of Puck." He said with remorse.

"What?" Puck and Justin said at the same time.

"R.J came over and told me that he overheard the chick," He motioned to Rachel, "was walkin' around here and asking people if they've seen you. Sadly, she asked the guy who's got a grudge over you."

Puck felt like he was going to break down right there, "I'll see you guys around..."

He walked around the car with the keys in his hand and opened the driver's door. He climbed in without a word, and drove off...

They reached the front of the house, not a word exchanged between them. They sat in her front driveway, with Puck staring at Rachel, and Rachel looking straight ahead.

Until Rachel spoke, "I don't want to be alone."

"Okay." Puck said simpley. He took the keys out of the ignition, and exited the car while she did the same. She stood on the front pourch from the door and let Puck open the door before they both walked in. Rachel quickly bounded up the stairs, while Puck followed her closely. She got to her room first but as soon as she was there, she stopped in the middle of the room when she was almost to her bed.

"Rach?" Puck said.

She turned around with new tears forming in her eyes. She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him, burring her face in his chest. Sobbing like a pregnant woman, and trying her hardest to stop wasn't working.

Puck hesitated when the hug started, but he soon after wrapped his arms around her neck, and held her close. "Come on, let's lay down."

He took her hand, and led her over to the bed, and picked up the covers for her. Rachel got in first, and layed down with Puck following her after they both took off their shoes. He layed down and pulled her over so she was laying on his chest, with both of his arms around her. One on her waist and the other on her arm. She still had tears down her cheeks, but she wasn't sobbing anymore.

"I'm so sorry." She said to him.

His eye brows moved together in a confused look, "What the hell do you need to be sorry about?"

"I'm sorry you had to fight. If I wasn't so pushy this morning, you wouldn't have left."

"Don't you dare apologize. There's nothing wrong with you. I'm the one that should be apologizing. If I never would have left, you wouldn't be in this situation right now. I shouldn't have fucked up again." Puck said, moving the hand on her waist to her hair, stroking it lightly.

"You didn't fuck up."

"Rachel Berry," Puck said in a surprised tone, "Did you just use the F-bomb?" He said, hoping to bring a smile to her face, and it did.

"Yes I did." She said, cuddling closer to her. He watched her send out a yawn.

"Get some sleep. We'll talk in the morning." He said.

After about 10 minutes of trying to fight back the rest of the tears, she couldn't go any longer. The tears started falling again, and the shaking picked up. Puck didn't know what else he could possibley do, so he started singing her a song by _+44 _called _Baby, Come On_.

_She's a pretty girl  
She's always falling down  
And I think I just fell in love with her  
But she won't ever remember, remember_

_Quit crying your eyes out  
Quit crying your eyes out, and baby come on  
Isn't there something familiar about me?  
The past is only the future with the lights on  
Quit crying your eyes out, baby_

And she said, "I think we're running out of alcohol  
Tonight I hate this fucking town  
And all my best friends will be the death of me  
But they won't ever remember, remember

So please take me far away  
Before I melt into the ground  
And all my words get used against me"  
You sad and lonely girl  
  
_Quit crying your eyes out  
Quit crying your eyes out, and baby come on  
Isn't there something familiar about me?  
The past is only the future with the lights on  
Quit crying your eyes out  
Isn't there something familiar about me?  
Quit crying your eyes out  
The past is only the future with the lights on  
So quit crying your eyes out, baby_

__

**AN: Yeahhhhh, that took forever. Review for my troubles? :D**


	5. LAX

**AN:** This took so long because it is long. THIS CHAPTER IS IMPORTANT, you'll see why, but you might not really think it's that important. Just sayin'.

AND, I still don't have a Beta. Anyone wanna help me out?

* * *

**LAX - Big D And The Kids Table;**

_And this is the difference between our lives,  
No wonder tonight you feel alright  
And I'm sorry if my mind is occupied,  
I'm trying to forget to wonder why.  
We're built up from nothing,  
I'm tyring to forget to wonder why._

He stayed awake, his mind dead set on keeping it that way. He didn't exactly intend to stay up in that mindset. His head had decided to keep him up, making sure he watched every breath she took, every time her eyes moved beneath her eyelids, every time she moved a little closer to him. He was going to keep her safe.

In the pit of his stomach, he knew this was all his fault.

How else would this have happened? If he didn't leave this morning, she wouldn't have went off looking for him. If she didn't go look for him, he wouldn't have had to find her. If she didn't get involved with those assholes, he wouldn't have almost been too late.

That scream still peirced his ears.

Why hadn't anyone else moved an inch when that scream left her lips? With all that adreniline pumping through his veins you'd think he wouldn't have noticed anyone else, but little did you know, he saw everything in slow motion. No one even flinched at the scream or the echo. It's as if it was a normal thing down on J Street. The worst part of that: It was the truth.

Screaming of girls on J Street wasn't unheard of. It was actually quite common. Guys on J Street were not strangers to finding and taking innocent women of any and all ages back into their alleys and doing what they wanted with them. Puck had honestly never thought that much of it. He didn't get in the way of all the other dealers, if they wanted to do that, then they could have fun getting a disease or having an angry family coming after them, or even a band of cops invading their alley for evidence finding whatever they could, including what residue of drugs they could find. It was a crime Puck wasn't a fan of, but who was he to get in another person's way?

Puck wouldn't have done that. He never agreed with it, but he didn't want to get into anything with the other, and maybe more forcefully powerful dealers and people on J Street. The last thing he wanted to do was get on some major Gang boss' bad side. He had to stay out of everything if he wanted to do that. The only real problem's he's had with anyone would be what happened between him and Ricardo, and now Patrick. That wasn't something to be worried about, none of his friends that he still talked to on the inside said anything about him doing stuff with Gangs.

Even if they were in gangs and tried to do that to Rachel, he would have killed them. If it hadn't been for her being there and having him remember what was actually going on and why he was beating the shit out of his worst enemy, he probably would have taken it further then just knocking him out.

There was more then just that on Puck's mind though. He wondered what could have provoked them to take Rachel of all people. Yeah, Rachel was really pretty, maybe even above average pretty, but she didn't have much in the sex appeal. Her boobs were small, and her ass wasn't the greatest of them all. Normally they only grab the people with loads of sex appeal. Puck was stumped until a thought registered in his head: What if Rachel mentioned him?

His eyes widened and his breathing caught in his chest.

He was the reason she was almost raped. He was the reason that she could be terrified for life. Rape and almost getting raped can do some really horrible things to people. He's seen it happen to another one of his friends from J Street. Her name was Faith. She was one of Puck's closest friends. Someone who always had his back, and he would always have hers. She was brutally raped by some guy who wasn't even a dealer. She was the dealer in this case, he asked her if she could go into the back alley to do the trade because he was afraid Cops would see them. She didn't even scream, or at least that's what people around there said. She must have. Who could go through that without screaming?

Anyway, she had the worst outcome of them all. She walked out of the alley with cuts and bruises all over her. Dougie was there to help her get to the nearest hospital, thank God. She had a broken wrist, and a lot of cuts and bruises. The doctor's and police officer's suggested that she saw a therapist. She took the advice and went to therapy a week after that. She admitted that it did help her cope, but she was having nightmares and was barely sleeping after that. She was still a wreck, and she wasn't Faith anymore. She was so different. Puck didn't matter to her anymore either, and Puck couldn't do a damn thing to change it. He felt like he betrayed her in so many different ways when he wasn't there that night to throw the punk ass off of her.

That's not even the worst of it. A month and a half later, she found out she was pregnant. With that horrible man's child. The first person she came to was Dougie. After that night he was the only one she actually went to for advice and help. Puck was there the night he found out. It killed him to see how everything in Faith's life just stopped, and started to fall apart because some asshole decided to get in her pants. Puck made a promise to Faith that he wouldn't let anyone hurt her every again.

Sadly, Puck couldn't save her from herself.

Another month later, they found her in her house. Dead for two days after Dougie called her in missing. She left a note in the bottle of Vikadan that she used to O.D with.

_'It's not fair. I didn't ask for that man to rape me. I didn't ask for him to get me pregnant. I didn't ask for the option of having a child that I didn't want, or killing a child I didn't want. It wouldn't be fair for my baby that it lives in a life that I never wanted him to have. I can't kill it, and I can't have him. I'll just have to kill myself. I can't live with knowing that I killed a child, and this way is better, no matter what you guys think. Trust me.'_

Puck cringed at the memory. He didn't want that to happen to anyone ever again. Especially anyone close to him. It was horrifying to hear the news. He remembered actually dropping to his knees and crying when that happened. It still amazed him that everything turns into slow motion when it's something you're stunned by.

Rachel turned in her sleep, and it made Puck's heart speed up. He thought something was wrong. He was ready to call 911 if needed. She turned over so that she was laying on her other side, facing away from him like the night before.

He still wanted to hold her, just to reassure that she was still there, and that she was still safe. He moved so that he was holding her again, moving the hair out of her face before he wrapped his arm around her. He kissed her shoulder and she moved a little more.

The sun was starting to come up little by little. Puck hadn't even realized this, but he'd been awake the entire night. He had to much on his mind to sleep. There wasn't a point in just trying to get to sleep now. He gave up on that hours ago, apparently.

She kept moving around in her sleep, so Puck was trying to figure out if he should try and hold her still, or let her move and let her go completely. He didn't like the second option. He tried to hold her steady. Turns out, that was a bad idea.

Rachel jolted awake and smacked Puck's arms away, sitting up quickly in a panic. She looked over at Puck and her eyes were wide. She put a hand over her heart and tried to calm herself down, "Don't do that- again."

"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't know you were gonna jolt awake like you got shocked or something." Puck mumbled, sitting up next to her.

"I just had terrible night where random men tried to rape me. I'm sorry if someone trying to hold me in place is a little frightening." Rachel said, not even looking at him. Her scarcasm hurt. It was like someone was digging their nails into his chest. She was still breathing heavy, and had a slightly paniced expression on her face.

Puck moved farther away from her, "Sorry. I didn't know."

She instantly felt bad. Yeah, she just got almost raped when she was out looking for him, but that doesn't mean it was his fault, she shouldn't be so harsh on the poor man. She thought about what was going on in his head. He probably thought it was all his fault when it wasn't at all.

"Noah." She said, moving closer to him. She moved so that her shoulder was pressing against his arm, and her head was resting on his shoulder, "It's not your fault."

"Yes it is." He said. That guilty feeling was even stronger now that even she was stupid enough to think that this wasn't his fault. He would have moved away but the way she had her head on his shoulder made him want to stay there.

"No. I shouldn't have been that nitwitted. You were right about what you mentioned yesterday. It seems that I am very sheltered." Rachel said taking her head off his shoulder and looking down. She brought her hands up into her lap and started playing with her nails, picking and pulling at them.

"Yeah. You are." Puck said, smirking a little.

She smiled and bumped into him playfully. She looked at him and smiled. He smirked back. Having her smiling was a good start, and he was planning on keeping that smile on her face. With all that's happened, she deserved to smile. She got out of a horrible situation, she was lucky.

"Thank you, Noah. Truly and honestly. I can't imagine what would have actually happened if you hadn't have come to my aid in time." Rachel said, putting on a serious and gentle face.

"I can imagine." Puck mumbled. He was back to feeling guilty.

"Hey," Rachel said softly. She took his hand in hers and looked into his eyes. She was so close to him, she could hear him breathing in a slow steady rythm. "Don't think about that. It didn't happen, so it's fine."

"Fine?" Puck huffed. "What happened isn't fine. It's no where near fine. What happened was horrible, and un-fucking-moral. If I see any of those two again, I'll castrate them so they can't even think about doing that to another girl."

"That would be a nice reassurance, but it didn't happen. Please, for me, can we just drop this? It didn't happen, and yes. I am still slightly shook up, but I'll survive. I didn't lose my virginity to them, so it's not as bad as it seems. I didn't get raped. It was close, but I still didn't."

Puck looked back at her with a confused expression, "You're a virgin?"

Rachel looked at him shocked for a moment, "Did I say that?"

"You did." Puck said. Her expression made him want to laugh, but it was a serious topic and he didn't want her to feel embarassed. Although he couldn't keep the smile off of his face.

"Well, maybe I am. That's for me to know, and you never to find out." She said in her old Rachel tone. That also made Puck smile.

"You're a virgin, that's sort of surprising." Puck said. It was the truth. Sure, Rachel was really stuck up and she was to smart for her britches, but she was pretty, and she made that speech about sex in the celibacy club. Puck had his own preconceptions about what Rachel would do in her spare time.

"Why is that surprising?" She mumbled. She wasn't comfortable with this. She knew that every other girl in her school was more... experienced in that feild then she was. She hated it. It was as if she was even more of an outcast then she originally anticipated she was.

"You're really hot, and I'm sure that and your talent could get you plenty of guys." Puck said.

"It's worked on a few, but not very many."

"Explain very many." Puck was wondering if she's ever even been kissed by someone. That would have been even more shocking then the virgin thing. Not being kissed until you're in your Sophmore year has got to be put in the World Record book or something. He'd gotten his first kiss when he was 10, and Rachel had to at least be 16. That would have been amazing. Especially with Puck's way of life.

"I've only had two boyfriends. Nothing really to brag about." She said. It made Rachel uncomfortable to talk about them. She wasn't proud of them at all.

"Who were they?" Puck asked. He found himself feeling slightly jealous about all of this. He'd had countless girlfriends, but just hearing that she's had two boyfriends was about to make him punch a wall, or punch them. Give or take.

"Jarred Histion and Adam Compest." She mumbled, rolling her eyes. "And I'd rather not talk about them, if you don't mind."

"I do mind. How about we play a game? I'll ask you a question, and then you'll get a free question about me. Sound good?" Puck said with a smirk.

This was her chance, "Fine. Jarred didn't treat me very well. He was a very jealous guy, and I wasn't allowed to have any other guy friends or even talk to some of my oldest best friends that were girls because they had boyfriends. I don't know what was so wrong with that. None of them would have wanted to be with me. He'd get jealous and accuse me of everything he could think of. I wasn't happy, so I called it off. Adam wasn't much better. He didn't make me feel good about myself at all. He thought that it was better for me to feel down about myself to make him feel good. I actually didn't end that one, even though I should have. He ended it because another girl found his attention. That was for the better. My turn?"

"Nope." Puck said, leaning back against the pillows. He put his hands behind his head and looked at her. She turned around with her jaw dropped in surprise.

"But you just said-"

"I never said I wanted to play. I just asked if you wanted to play." He said, his smartassness showing in full force. He smiled at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"What am I supposed to do with you, Noah?" She said putting a hand on her forehead and shaking it a little. She rubbed her temples.

"You're supposed to just let me be me." He said.

She layed back down next to him, getting under the covers. She layed so that she was on the side that was letting her face him. He followed her movement.

"I'll play at another point in time." He said while he was getting situated. His eyes met her eyes.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

His heart lifted a little. Maybe her type of promises ment something and they weren't just false hope in any case. Even when she asked them. There was a feeling there that said when she did make a promise, she'd keep it until it was filled, or she died. Either way, it'd come true. He wouldn't be that guy either. He'd keep every promise he made to her from now on.

"So..." He said awkwardly. "Do you wanna talk-"

"No. I don't want to talk about it." Rachel said quickly. She didn't want to remember it. She just wanted to forget it ever happened.

There was an awkward silence.

"Then what _do _you want to do?" He asked, realizing that he was getting more bored by the minute. He thought that the best way for him to distract her was to actually do something instead of just sitting there and letting her think about what happened. He's learned that the best way to repress a memory is to not think about it. Hopefully this memory will end up doing that on it's own. "Just sitting around's boring as hell."

"We could watch a movie?" She suggested, thinking about anything that they had to do in her house. Her parents tried to give her everything and anything she wanted, but she'd never really asked for many things to do around the house. Mostly it was to be given every opportunity to get her on track to becoming a star she believed she could be. The most she ever asked for was a big TV to look at her past performances to see what she could improve on, and some movies for when she would have interview questions asking her about her favorite movies. She was well prepared for stardom.

"What movies do you got?" Puck asked, getting off the bed. He was still fully clothed from the night before because neither of them had even thought of putting on pajamas after what happened. She followed his lead, but stepped out of the room quicker then he did.

Puck stayed behind for a second and let her start downstairs by herself. He went back to the bed and grabbed a few pillows and the huge comfortor off of her bed and balanced it all in his arms. The good news was that if he fell down the stairs, he would have a lot to fall onto. Suggesting that it would fall in the right place to catch him.

She was already down stairs when he got there safetly. She was trying to find something in the couch cousions, mumbling to herself, "Missing something?"

"Yeah. The remote. I could have sworn I left it on the coffee table, but it seems that I'm wrong." Rachel said lifting up another couch cousion.

Puck threw the stuff on the floor next to the couch and helped her in the search for the remote. They looked for almost 5 minutes before Puck gave up. "I think your couch ate your remote. Is it going to bite me if I sit on it?"

"Highly doubtful." She said, leaning down and looking under the couch. "Eureka."

"Your what's leaking?" Puck asked, her voice was being muffled from leaning against the couch, trying to reach the remote.

She moved up to look at him and his confused face made her want to roll her eyes but she held it back and just fixed his mind for him, "I said 'eureka', the term used to say that you discovered something or figured something out."

"Oh... Here, let me get it." Puck said getting on the floor with her. He was on his hands and knees in front of her. He saw the gray and blue outline of the remote and reached his arm in and got it out for her. She took it from him without a simple thank you. He watched her from his knees getting up and going over to the TV. She turned it on and opened a cabinate that was full of movies. Puck didn't push for a thank you.

"Pick a movie. The Music Man, West Side Story, which is my personal favorite, The Sound Of Music, Cats, The Wizard Of Oz, A Chorus Line-"

Puck cut her off, "All the movies you have are musicals?"

"No, I'm just naming all of the decient Films we have in this house. My Dad's very into action and movies that I don't see the point in." Rachel said. She walked to the opposite side of the TV and opened the other drawer that was filled to the brim of the action movies and stuff that Puck just had to bask in the glory of. He got up and looked at all of the movies. He was randomly saying out titles of movies he wanted to watch, until the tapping of Rachel's foot on the floor next to him got his attention.

"Or a compromise would work...?"

"I've got an idea. You like horror movies, right?" Puck nodded his head. She turned on her heel and walked back over to her side of the TV. She pulled out a dark covered disk that looked like it was a bootleg. "_Repo! The Genetic Opera._ This is a good compromise. It's got horror and gore in it, along with a high level of music."

"I'll try it. I guess."

He went back over to the couch, close to the left side of the couch so he could have an arm rest and sat down, pulling all of the things from her bed he brought down stairs over onto the couch. He pulled the blanket tightly around him. Her house was actually very cold for someone who lived in Ohio. It felt like -90 degreese below freezing to him. She put the movie in and went to go sit on the couch, "That's my seat Noah."

He felt a smirk come apon his face without trying, "I don't see your name on it."

She smiled and shook her head crossing her arms, "Do you really need to act like a 5 year old?"

"Need to, no. Want to, yes." He smiled at her. Puck leaned back in the couch, moving around acting like he was getting comfortable and threw his arms back around his head in a relaxing position.

"Don't make me sit on you." She threatened, thinking that maybe that would actually work.

"Then do it, I wouldn't complain." He said, pulling the blanket off of him, showing her his lap, "It's nice and warm."

She rolled her eyes, but sat down on him anyway. He adjusted his body so that her sitting on him wouldn't put any strain on his boys and wrapped the blanket back over them. He was glad she was short, her head could rest on his chest and he could still see the movie. Her hair was another story, it kept getting into his nose and his mouth. Not his favorite way to watch a movie, but it was okay for now. He liked this. It sort of satisfied a part of him he wasn't really used to satasfying. His heart.

She was comfy, too. She couldn't remember the last time she actually cuddled with a guy. This might have been her first time actually. She wouldn't let Puck know that though. She wouldn't let him know that she liked being this close to him either. She wasn't going to let him know that she was really happy just being there. He made her feel safe, especially since she could feel his muscles on her back going up and down along with his breathing.

Right there. Exactly there was the only place either of them wanted to be. They felt like something was right with them. Of course they wouldn't say anything about it.

Why would either of them risk losing what they had by saying something like that? Rachel was afraid Puck would call her obsessive and that she was even more insane than he already thought. Puck thought that she would have thrown him out, or done something stupid and think he was using her for his own gain. None of that was true, but Fear can always hold people back from what their hearts are telling them to do. Especially in this world of Gleeks and Jocks, even though Puck was both.

They started the movie, and Puck was hooked instantly...

"That was awesome!" Puck yelled. He loved how gorey it was, and the music was pretty catch. "The part with the Zydrate's pretty cool. I wonder if that'd actually work the same way as the shit I've tried."

Puck always knew his big mouth would get him in trouble one day.

"What?" She asked in her little voice. She didn't intend to do it, it just happened. She was more surprised then anything. He just came out and said something like that without a fight. After what happened yesterday, she wasn't actually going to try and get him to talk to her about anything again. At least... Not anytime soon.

"Nothing." Puck killed the conversation as fast as he could.

"No." Rachel said. She was still on his lap, so she just shifted and leaned herself against the arm rest and looked back at him, making sure her legs were covering him so that he couldn't leave. "Talk."

"I don't want to." Puck said, trying to keep his anger down.

"Noah, you already started. Please...? You owe me an answer. I don't want to beg you." She said, pushing out her bottom lip. The puppy dog pout. Any man's only true weakness to the opposite sex and giving in.

Puck stared at it for a second, "Fine. What's the question? But you only get one, Berry."

"How much have you actually done? Regarding your drug useage and all things related to that." Rachel said softly. She made sure to look in his eyes. She wanted him to see how much this really ment to her.

He took a deep breath, "I've done a lot, okay? If you can get it on J-Street, I've probably done it. Coke, Mary Jane, Ecstacy, Ciggarettes, and I've even done acid a few times. I've had a drinking problem since I was 12. I've kicked the coke habit, but I've done the rest pretty recently."

"How recently?"

"I said one question," He said, then he put his hand over her mouth. "And no more puppy dog shit."

She rolled her eyes and he took his hand off, "That question falls under the category of that question, therefor it shouldn't actually count as a seperate question."

"Your logic's retarded. Recently as in the last week. I smoke pretty much every day, except the past few days that I've been here, obviously. Which reminds me that I really need a fucking ciggarette."

Rachel watched him dig into his pocket and pull out a pack of Newports and a black lighter, "Can you move?"

"Why?" She was flabbergasted that he actually brought one out in the middle of her living room when her fathers could be home any minute. That would be a great first impression.

"Well, would you like me to smoke in your house and have it smelling like you were in a biker bar? I don't think so."

"I guess not..." She reluctantly said. She got off his lap and stood up. He followed her lead. She took him out through her oversized kitchen and out to the back sliding glass door. She unlocked all of the locks and let him go out onto the patio. He sat down on the table they had out there instead of one of the chairs. Rachel sat down on the step that lead outside.

She watched him bring the ciggarette up to his lips and cover the flame of the lighter and light the cigarette. She just watched as he took a long drag out of it and took it out of his mouth.

"It's kind of weird having you just watch me," Puck said while still trying to hold in the smoke, he let it out slowly away from Rachel's direction. "Talk or something. This feels awkward as hell."

"I'm not sure what to say..."

Puck huffed, "That's a first."

He took another drag, not as long as the first but his lung capacity still amazed Rachel. He held it in for a few seconds and let it out.

"What do you want me to say?" She asked. He was sort of weirded out by the lack of conversation. Not a minute that he's known Rachel has that ever happened. It's like seeing the Northern Lights in Florida in the middle of the summer. Rachel didn't have an off switch for her constant gabbing.

"Anything, pick something."

"I don't have much to say. I've only got questions right now."

Puck closed his eyes and shook his head, "Then ask 'em."

Rachel's eyes lit up a little, "Really? You're not just going to dismiss them this time, are you?"

"Naw. I'll answer." He brought the cigarette back up to his lips.

"What got you to start smoking? How long have you been smoking? Did this develope before or after you started smoking marijuana? What cau-"

"Berry." Puck said, laughing and having the smoke file out of his nose and his mouth. "One at a time."

"What got you to start smoking?"

"I followed my mom's lead. She's a chain smoker, I started off just smoking a little but eventually I found out it calmed down the stressful feeling I got almost all the time way back when, so I stuck with it."

"Stressful how?"

"That's something I won't get into. It's dipping into my past and that's not something I really like doing. Especially when I can't trust someone entirely." Puck caught the look of dissapointment on her face, "Yet. Trust yet."

"That's understandable. How long ago was that?"

"About 5 or 4 years ago." He took the last drag of his cigarette and pushed it against her table.

"Hey, that's an expensive table! Don't do that." She said rushing over to him. She took the butt out of his hand and flicked it over the fence that was closest.

"My bad, it's not like a left a mark or anything." Puck said. She was really close to him. By really close, it ment she was touching him. She was between his open legs that were keeping his balance on the table. Her hand some how ended up on his thigh. She turned to him and felt a blush creep up on her cheeks.

"Um... Want to go back inside?" She asked sort of stumbling over her words.

His eyes met her's and he couldn't think. All he could see was her light brown eyes. He couldn't have formed a sentence even if he processed what she just said to him.

She felt his hand graze over her hand that was on his leg and felt it tingle as it lightly grabbed her hand. He interwined their fingers together as he used his other hand to push her curls behind her ear. He leaned in and she followed suit.

"Surprise, surprise." Someone said from behind them.

* * *

AN: That chapter may have seemed pointless, but it's necessary. It's the first step in their relationship as FRIENDS, as you can see, they didn't kiss. Hahahah.

VVVVVVCLICKFORHAPPINESSVVVVVV


	6. Bright Spring Morning

**AN: **Yes indeedy feed the needy. This story's going to be kind of long, so I'm packing as much into a chapter as humanly and have it make as much sense as possible. This is probably the shortest chapter I'll have in here. :P

**Bright Spring Morning - Suburban Legends**

_The time is right to begin,_

_Lets get going once again,_

_For once in your life just let go,_

_I'm getting sick of everything,_

_Tired of what the next day brings,_

_What I need is for you to follow my lead._

His eyes met her's and he couldn't think. All he could see was her light brown eyes. He couldn't have formed a sentence even if he processed what she just said to him.

She felt his hand graze over her hand that was on his leg and felt it tingle as it lightly grabbed her hand. He interwined their fingers together as he used his other hand to push her curls behind her ear. He leaned in and she followed suit.

"Surprise, surprise." Someone said from behind them.

Rachel jumped back away from Puck, who really wasn't as scared as she was. It wasn't as nerve racking to him either. He swore he could hear her heart beat from where he was sitting. That was good. At least she wasn't scared to death.

"What the hell, Finn?" Rachel yelled in a stern voice. Puck smirked. She said 'hell'. He must have already started rubbing off on her.

She put a quivering hand over her heart, feeling it punching the inside of her chest. Why couldn't he have knocked? Or yelled for them in the house? The last thing Rachel wanted was to have Finn walk in on her and Puck in that compromising position. This wasn't only embarassing, it was about to send her into a coma. She really thought that she locked the front door. How on Earth did he get in? "How did you get in?"

"The front door was unlocked."

"So you just let yourself in?" Puck snapped. He may have been amused that she cursed, but that didn't change the fact that Finn ruined the moment he was waiting for. At least, the moment he was assuming he was waiting for. It felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders when he got her that close, but then it got put back on and made it even heavier when it was ruined.

"I knocked first. You just didn't hear me because you guys were out here." Finn glared at Puck while Rachel looked to the floor ashamed. She hugged herself and bit the inside of her cheek. Getting caught felt horrible. Especially by the guy you really wanted to be with. Her heart was pulling towards Finn, but something in it kept her from going through with that. She knew she wanted Finn, but now she wasn't so sure he was the _only_ guy she wanted to be with.

"I apologize."

Puck's jaw dropped. He shot his eyes at Rachel. What the hell was she doing? _He_ barged in on _them_, not the other way around. She didn't have a damn thing to apologize for. This shit is getting even more fucked up then it should have been.

"It's not your fault, I'm sorry too," Finn said. "I just needed to talk to you."

"About what?" Rachel said, looking up at him. She could feel Puck's eyes on her, but she did her best to ignore it because it wasn't want she needed right now.

"It's private..." Finn said more to Puck then to Rachel.

Rachel gave him a motion as to go inside, Puck refused for a moment. That was until she mouthed out 'please?' and put on that damn puppy dog face.

"Well, don't mind me." Puck said hopping off the table, he walked up to Finn who was standing in the doorway, "If ya don't mind?"

Finn moved to the side slightly. Puck smirked and walked in anyway, hitting Finn back a little to get him out of the way. Rachel turned around and put a hand to her forehead. She forgot how completely stubborn and annoying Puck was. Finn was stubborn, too. He just knew when to let it come out and when to keep it in. Most of the time. There has been a few slip ups with Finn. One thing she didn't like about his personality. One of the many things...

"Earth to Rachel." Finn said, waving a hand in front of her face.

She pushed the hand away from her, "Yes Finn?"

"I wanted to ask you what was going on with Puck and you? Last night you said you'd call me, and you never did. I got worried, so I came over. Then find you and him in a very weird position for you guys to be in. I mean, you do know that's Puck right?" He said, pointing towards the inside.

She nodded, "I'm well aware of that. I was very tired when I got home yesterday, so I went straight to bed. I'm sorry that calling you escaped my mind."

"Yeah. Escaped your mind," He mumbled under his breath rolling his eyes. "More like forced out of your mind."

He wasn't that quiet... "Forced?"

"Yes. Forced. Puck has that effect on girls. He's just trying to get into your head."

She huffed and looked down at the ground, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. He's got a way with women. I wish I could do what he does, but I've got Quinn to deal with and I couldn't do what he does to girls. I've actually got a heart." Finn said. "Don't fall for his shit."

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about." She played it off. She didn't like the stuff she would always hear about Puck. He may have been a complete jerk, and doesn't have the greatest track record in the world, but he's got a heart. Regardless of what Finn wants to think.

"He's trying to play with you. With your mind. He does this to every girl who thinks he's opening up to them. Trust me, I've seen it millions of times. You were about to let him kiss you. That's a big no-no." Finn said, crossing his arms and looking at her like she was his daughter and he just caught her in bed with Puck.

"I think that's my decision not yours," Rachel was slowly getting aggrivated. Finn didn't own her, nor was it his business in the first place. She wanted to scream at him, and yell at him. This wasn't his life, where did he have the right to have a say? Plus, he was with Quinn, there wasn't a point in waiting around for him. She was doing the right thing. Finding another guy was a good first step in the matter. Puck was there, he was nice to her now, and he seemed to care about her enough to be an object of her affection. At least until Quinn was out of the picture, but as of right now Finn doesn't have an opinion that matters. "No, in fact, I know it's my decision. If I want to kiss Noah, I will. You can't stop me, Finn. And who's to say I was even going to let him? I could have stopped him at any point in his movements. You just so happened to force that decision on us. I guess we'll never know now, will we? Any how, don't you have a girlfriend to tend to?"

She was glaring at him and she didn't even realize. She wasn't the type of person to get that pissed off at one of her best, and only, friends. She had no idea she was even glaring at him. She's never thought about that before today. Finn was to important to her for her to actually be mad at her.

"This attitude isn't like you Rach, he's rubbing off on you," Finn said, looking at her. Those words were harsh. He just wanted her to realize that he did care about her, but he didn't want to get to involved with her when he's already got a girlfriend who he really cares about. Like, _really _cares about. There wasn't just that, she was hot. All the guys in school envied him, and he liked the attention and constant questions about what was going on with them. He was popular without her, but with her, he was a God among mortals. "Call me when you're back to normal."

"Maybe you won't even be that lucky." She said as he started to walk away.

Before he got into the house he turned around, "I'd be lucky? Ha. That's funny."

Her jaw dropped. If that meant what she thought it was supposed to be... How could he? She has never done anything wrong to Finn, and they have one fight and he storms off with a very hurtful exit. When he got into the house and got out of her view, she got a confused look on her face. Why didn't he turn back around? He should have stopped to apologize. He didn't. He didn't even care enough to look like he was sorry... He didn't care to look back at all...

Puck was on the couch in the living room, sitting so his back was the the T.V and he was sitting on the back of the couch, where your head, not your ass, was supposed to go. He could sort of see them from where he was sitting. He didn't want Finn to make any moves on Rachel. Puck could tell his feelings for this girl were growing. Faster then any other girl he's met. He wasn't saying that he was in love, or that he was whipped. He's never had either of those experiences, and he wasn't planning on going through those until he was at least 50 or at all. The second one is what he preferred.

He watched them talk, trying not to strain his ears to much. He could only hear muffles from where he was sitting, and a part of him was fine with them talking, and the other part wanted to go out there and ruin everything between them like Finn just did to him. He was so close, and it really felt right. Kissing girls had never felt that way, and he wasn't even putting his lips on her. It's just what he felt like to be close to her. Kind of like what he felt when he'd pop a few pills of Ecstacy and then smoked a bowl or five. It's the best drug trip he's ever been on, and the greatest part was that there wasn't any drugs. There wasn't a risk of all the side effects, and there wasn't a risk for ODing on her.

... At least he sure as hell hoped he couldn't.

He noticed that Finn's motions and the volume of their converstion weren't getting softer. He was pointing to the house, no doubt that was code for Puck. He huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. If Finn didn't have the balls to come in here to say it to his face, he didn't get to say shit about him unless it was to his face. For all Puck knew, Finn could be out there talking more shit then he's ever had talked about him.

That's when he noticed that Rachel was getting defensive too. That one took Puck by surprise. All of the rumors about Rachel have revolved around her obsession with Finn, and for a while, Puck got on that ban wagon with the rest of the Glee kids, but now he found himself doubting that. Why would you fight with someone you're trying to be with? I mean, this didn't look like flirting fighting, this looked like 'I'm playing Halo and I'm about to Merk you' fighting.

Wow, what a snap. He watched Rachel glare and it reminded him of every time before then when she'd save her glares for him. She's never used a glare against Finn. Well, from what he knew she never did. They were the best of friends, and it made Puck want to barf up some lunch with a side of guts. The way he could catch her at any moment with him, or find her staring at him without getting noticed. Ugh. It made him taste the familiar taste of puke in his mouth.

To be honest, Noah Puckerman was the jealous type. When he saw Quinn and Finn together, it made his stomach turn. It only ever happened with people he really cared about. He's had a crush on Quinn since he met her, it was never anything to serious though. Except for that one night he hung out with her. She wanted to drink and Puck was there to supply the liquor. She only had a few sips before she was almost wasted. Having a low tolerance wasn't good your first time drinking. That was a good night, seeing as how she wanted to have sex with him after that. Sure, Finn and Quinn were dating, but that doesn't mean anything if Finn didn't find out.

With Santana, and the other girls without names that could stick out in his memory didn't really matter. He could have walked in on Santana having sex with one of his closest friends and be prefectly fine. No bad feeling about it. That proved it was only people he really cared about. They were just there to hold his load for a little while. Frustrated sex, mad sex, upset sex, pretty much just there for sex.

And lately, when it came to Rachel and Finn, that wasn't an exception. Actually, it made the feeling worse. His mouth had the taste of metal in it, his stomach decided to go against him and sink into his legs, and his heart tried to choke him. He knew how to cover it up. Being around her more made that feeling come around less and less. He was there with her, and Finn was off with Quinn or jacking himself off in the comforts of his own home. Finn wasn't there to ruin anything with them... Well, now he was.

Or not?

Finn stormed back into the house, and Puck thought about not acting like he was watching them, but fuck that shit. He wasn't going to hide something that would make Finn annoyed. Not after he barged in on them.

"Did you get all of your feelings out?" He said in a mock impression of Dr. Phil.

Finn went straight up to him and looked him dead in the eye, "I _swear_ to God, Noah Puckerman. If you do a damn thing to make her change in any way, I will kick your _ass_. Don't turn her into you. She doesn't need that shit. She's a good girl, and you're just an asshole who uses people. You hurt her, and I'll kill you. Remember that video I showed you? 'Three Guys, One Hammer'? Yeah, it's gonna be _even more _brutal than that. Watch your step."

Without another word, Finn left. Puck was sort of in shock. Finn actually looked like he was going to do something right there. Maybe Puck was crossing the line with how close he was getting to Rachel... No. Not really. Finn can't have her _and _Quinn all to himself. That's just not fair to the rest of the world.

Puck shrugged and went over to lock the door, making sure that no other unwanted visitors were going to come in. He turned on his heel and made his way back out side.

Rachel had her back to him, sitting down with her feet in her pool and her pant legs rolled up around her thighs. Something didn't smell right...

That's when he saw smoke coming from in front of Rachel, "What the hell are you doing, Rachel?"

She turned around and Puck saw the ciggarette in her hand and it was already lit. By the way it looked, she took a drag or two out of it. Other than how it looked, she started having a coughing fit. She had her hand over her mouth and she looked like she was slightly light headed.

Puck took a seat next to her and put a hand on her back, and took the ciggarette away from her with his other hand, "Why the fuck are you smoking?"

"I was just attempting to..." She got into another coughing fit, "Bring my stress level down."

She looked like a three year old who just got caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar above the sink.

"This isn't the way to do that, and plus, that's my excuse. You can't steal it."

She rolled her eyes, "You do it, so what's the big deal?"

"It's bad for you, if you didn't pay attention in health class. I'm surprised you didn't know that anyway. You're not going to start smoking ciggarettes."

"Why not? Not like you care." She snapped.

Puck was taken aback by that. She snapped at him a lot, but this one hurt a little more then usual, "Not care? I wouldn't be here right now if I didn't care. I remember having this conversation last night, and the night before that. Berry, I care about you. Get that into your overly packed brain."

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the water.

"What's going on with you?"

"Finn told me that I shouldn't be hanging out with you, and that you were no good for me. Only using me..."

"Oh..." Obviously she was going to listen. He was her best friend, there wasn't any way to get in between them.

"Not an 'oh'. I told him that it wasn't his decision," His heart picked up, "Then he made a very rude comment, and left. I don't care. It's really not his decision, and he wouldn't know a thing about us from his stand point."

"He's just scared that I'm going to turn you into someone like me or the people I hang out with. He wouldn't know anything about them though. They're some of the greatest people I've ever met, and he doesn't know shit about them. He's got no room to judge." He said.

They sat in silence for a minute. The ciggarette still burned within Puck's hand. He looked down at it, "You still want this?"

"Not really..." She said looking at it with disgust, "It's not all it's cracked up to be. It made me feel queezy and light headed."

"That's the normal reaction to these things," Puck examined it in his hand, and then took a drag. He let it out quicker than the other ones, "I remember when my mom caught me smoking. She made me chain smoke the whole pack. I was puking for an hour after, and I couldn't get out of my bed I was so dizzy. At least from just a few hits you didn't throw up. People can take one hit and be puking."

"Really?" She asked with a disgusted look on her face.

"Yep, it's all of the low tolerance people." Puck said, finishing off the rest of the ciggarette. "If you wanna try smoking, try to go for Weed. It's not this addictive, and it's almost impossible to actually get addicted to. It happens, but that's really rare. People just like it to much."

"Are you addicted?"

"Nah. I'm just into how it makes me feel. Some people like it, some people think it's a waste of time and money, but it's not to me."

"Would you let me try it with you sometime?"

He raised an eyebrow in her direction, "Didn't Finn tell you not to turn into me?"

He knew that would set her off, "Finn's not my dad or my daddy. Don't take him into a count."

"Well... If you want to, I'm going to have to build you up more for it. You've got some dues to pay there, darlin'." He said with a smirk.

That smirk always meant that there was a hidden meaning behind his words. That made her nervous, "Like what...?"

"You'll just have to wait and find out." He said, kissing her on the cheek. That made her blush pretty hard as he got up. He looked down at her and smirked again. He started walking into the house.

Rachel got her feet out of the pool and used her pant legs to dry her legs off, "Noah, I don't like the sound of this!"

* * *

**AN: I ADVISE YOU TO NOT LOOK UP 3 GUYS, 1 HAMMER. **That video is sick and very nasty. I'm also going to start writing for Big Time Rush.

Anyway, I like how the story's progressing. Do you? VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV


	7. Stay Awake

**AN: **That opening episode of the new season was a GREAT start. I can't wait to see what's going to happen with Jon and Idina. I can't wait! :D

**And personally**, if Jesse wasn't out to get Rachel and ruin her Glee career, I'd say they would make one hell of a real couple. That might just be because I'm obsessed with _Spring Awakening_, but they look good together, if I do say so myself.

* * *

**Stay Awake (Dreams Only Last For A Night) - All Time Low;**

_Stay awake, get a grip and get out,  
You're safe from the weight of the world_

_Just take a second to set things straight,_

_I'll be fine even though I'm not always right.  
I can count on the sun to shine,  
Dedication takes a lifetime,  
But dreams only last for a night._

Puck dug his phone out of his pocket as Rachel followed him into the house. He flipped it open and saw that he had three new text messages, all from Santana. He didn't even feel his phone go off. He was sure it would have been dead after a few days. These Samsung phones aren't supposed to hold that much power. Oh well. He checked the first one:

_'heyyyy. what are you doin?'_

He rolled his eyes. The only time she ever texted him was when she was looking for some action or some attention. He never understood what the point of her trying to start an actual conversation was.

He was about to check the other two when he realized that Rachel was still blabbering on about something.

"I'd appreciate if you would let me know what your intentions are, Noah. I don't want to be going into whatever you have planned without some knowledge of what's in store for me this evening." Rachel said, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked at him like a mother would when the kid did something and wouldn't admit to it.

He only smirked at her before going back to his phone. He went out of his inbox and into his Contacts. He skimmed down until he found the number he was looking for.

_One ring... Two rings... Three rings..._

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Puckerman." The voice on the other end said.

"What's up, Doug?" Puck said smiling at the greeting. Rachel squinted her brows together, who was Doug?

"How's your lady friend? She holdin' up?" Doug said. Then Puck heard the all familiar sound of Doug inhaling something. He assumed it was his daily dose of self prescribed medicine. That sweet old Mary Jane.

"Yeah. Scared the shit out of me though," He ran a hand over his Mohawk and let out a sigh. It was the truth. He could still hear the scream echoing in his mind. It's as if the whole thing was on repeat in his mind and he couldn't get it off. "But bro, what's going on tonight?"

"There's some party going on down at the Rev's house. Nothin' too big. Just the usual crowd." He answered.

"Perfect place to test her out in. You think you could give us a ride?"

"I'd think it'd be okay. What's the address?"

"302 Bowing Drive. Put that into your G.P.S.."

"Thanks dude."

"No problem, mon." Dougie said in his best Jamaican accent. Puck huffed and smiled as he hung up the phone.

"What's so funny? Why are you smiling?" Rachel asked. She was honestly scared about what was going to happen later. She wasn't one for surprises when she knew it was coming. If he didn't say anything about them going out tonight, she wouldn't have cared so much. Surprises were better left spoiled in her mind.

"Will you calm down?" Puck asked smirking at her. He turned to face her and uncrossed her arms and put them down at her sides. He looked right into her eyes, "You're going to just have to be surprised. Don't worry. You're gonna be fine. It's just a step in the stoner direction."

"I never said I wanted to become a pot-head. I was just saying that I'd like to try it sometime, then maybe I can have some insight as to why you do it." She stated.

"First, I prefer stoner, not pot-head. That's just mean," He said stuffing his phone back into his pocket. "Second, you're going to get to that stage eventually. Maybe even tonight if you play your cards right."

He winked at her and moved out of the kitchen. Rachel stood there and thought for a moment. If she would have the chance to smoke tonight, she could take off quite a few of her hunches of where he was going to take her. That only left going to a concert, even though she couldn't think of a clear way for someone to smuggle weed into a concert with all of the checks the security guards would do on the people going into the concert.

That only left two more options, a party, or a night on J-Street with Puck's lovely friends. Her mind doubted he'd make her go back there this soon after the incident that happened; at least she hoped he had the sensitivity to know that wouldn't be the best thing in the world for her to do. Not yet, at least.

She rushed through her house when she heard her door open from the kitchen. What the hell could he be doing in her room?

* * *

Puck went straight up to her room and went directly to her drawers. He looked through the top left one first. He was looking for something that would help her fit the scene as well as she could. Implying that the bouncer at the front didn't tell her she couldn't go in because she looked like a toddler. His goal was to actually use some of the fashion knowledge he's gained from trying to score some of the cheerleader ass he's had in the past. Finding something that they could talk about made it easier for him to get into their pants faster.

Plus, he knew the style of his friends, and he could try and copy the style that a lot of the girls in his group wear. Normally it involved something black, and right now he really doubted Rachel even knew what the color black looked like.

She came into the room a little after he got finished with the first drawer. He opened the second drawer, and found a nice little surprise. At least it was nice for him. Rachel... Not so much, "Noah! Get out of that drawer!"

He held up a pair of black panties with a smirk, "Wow. Maybe you do know what color black is."

He was laughing as she pulled them out of his hands, "You're deplorable, you know that? A true pervert."

"What? It's not like I went through your stuff _looking_ for that, although I'm glad you're not a granny panty kind of chick. A lot of people think you are," Puck knew by the look on her face that he should have kept that part in his mind, "I'm looking for something you can wear tonight."

"Excuse me, but I'm perfectly capable of picking out my own clothing. I have been since the age of three," She said, closing the drawer and standing in front of it. Puck shrugged and went over to her closet. "Oh no you don't!"

She rushed in front of it, and Puck pushed her slightly. She stumbled into the wall next to her closet and hit her hip on the wall.

"Ow! Jesus." Rachel flinched away from the wall. A sharp pain went up from her hip to her chest. She didn't know what it was, it felt like a bruise, but she couldn't really remember when she would have gotten a bruise... "Oh no."

"What happened?" Puck asked, he was in a slight panic. Had he just done that to her? She didn't even hit the wall that hard, he didn't mean for her to get hurt. He just meant for it to be a slight off set of her balance, now she was complaining about something hurting. Fuck. What'd he do?

Rachel didn't respond. She just looked down and put her hand on the right hip, pressing down lightly. Her hand jerked away and her eyes closed in pain and in fear of what was under her shirt. She grabbed the hem and looked at Puck for a quick second before her attention went back to her hip. She slowly lifted her shirt and Puck moved to get a better look at what she was revealing.

Both of their eyes went wide.

"Fuck, Rach. I'm so sorry; I didn't think I pushed you that hard. I'm so sorry. God, I'm such a fuck up. Fuck." Puck said in more of a mumble than a sentence. Rachel looked away from the scene so it could sink in slowly, instead of making her chest hurt as much as her hip. It wasn't just any bruise. It was a massive, broken blood vessel, black, purple, and red bruise.

A bruise in the shape of a hand.

"You didn't do this, Noah," Her eyes slowly went up to his, trying to be as gentle and strong as her eyes possibly could be. "It happened last night..."

Puck's hand clenched into a fist and his eyes closed. He let out an angry breath. He turned away from her and walked over to her bed, his head bent down so he looked like he was looking at her bed. His eyes were crushed close, making sure that he got the image of the hand print out of his head. He swore right then and there that if he ever saw those two again, they wouldn't be breathing for very much longer. Not if he had a say in it.

Rachel went over to him and put a hand on his lower back, "C'mon, Noah. It's okay."

"How can you say that?" He looked at her like she was growing another head. "This is _all _my fault. I dare you to find a reason how this isn't my fault."

"You weren't the one who tried to rape me... You saved me from it. If anything, I should be the one to blame, and the one who's thanking you. If not for you... I would have lost something very important to me... You're not to blame. You're only to thank. Trust me." She said softly.

His gaze went from raging to gentle. He sighed and pulled her into a tight hug. Her arms wrapped around his waist and his arms went around her shoulders. She rested her head against his upper chest and breathed in his scent. It was sort of amazing to her that he could still smell like him even though his last few days had been spent in her house.

It was a perfect picture, the way they fit together. She was just short enough to fit under his arms, but tall enough so that he didn't have to bend down to make contact with her body. Being in his arms made her feel safe. Holding her made him feel like he was in the right place, even after all these years of not knowing where he was supposed to be, but now... He felt like he found that place.

But of course, being the people they were, with the history they had, that just wasn't going to leave their minds.

Rachel pulled away a little, and Puck followed her lead. His hand went to the back of his head and he scratched, "Um, sorry."

"No need to apologize," Que the awkward moment, "Weren't you looking for clothes for me?"

"Oh yeah." Puck said, walking pretty quickly to the closet. He opened the door and was almost suffocated just looking at how crammed it was in there.

Rachel came up beside him as he surveyed what he had to work with, "Are you going to be able to dress me for the occasion?"

"Most likely. If not, oh well." Puck mumbled. He was trying his best to forget the night before. It wasn't like he was ashamed of something he did last night like he had been in the past, as if he was getting too drunk and he did something stupid. It wasn't like that. It was a feeling of misery that was slightly to familiar for him at this time. It wasn't even misery for himself, it was for her. Rachel Berry had him feeling the way only a few people in the entire world had the power to make him feel. That point alone was very confusing for him to think about. He's only had people related to him give that feeling to him.

Rachel watched as he searched through her clothes, not caring that he was trashing what he was looking for in the mean time. Her mind was in it half heartedly. She was more occupied with the mark on her hip. The images from last night's encounter flashed through her mind. They have been since the ride home. To be quite honest, it was all she had been thinking about. Even Finn and Puck weren't in her thoughts as much as the boys who were holding onto her and slamming her down were. They clouded her memory. Every touch, every remark, every moment.

"_Stay down slut. The more you fight the better it's going to feel when I rip open your little cunt."_

She could hear the bigger guy's voice echoing in her ears. Those words were so harsh. She's never been talked to like that. Not even when Puck would try and hurt her feelings. His remarks were never that down grading. They were at least civil. Not as demeaning as these words were. They tore down her skin right to her bone.

She was putting on an act, just like she did a majority of the time. Her exterior was fine, but her inside was screaming in terror. It was telling her not to leave the house, to just hide in her room until she felt it was safe to go back outside. In the words of the infamous _Sherlock Holmes_: **Time to heal physically, six weeks. Time to heal mentally, six months.**

At least in the movie it was infamous. And a simple bruise wouldn't take six weeks to heal. More like two.

Although she was in pain mentally, she wouldn't let Puck know it. He already blamed himself for everything that happened, the last thing she would need was for him to know she really was hurt. Hiding it was the only way to keep Puck's sanity right where it is. If it got to be to much for her to handle, she would tell him. Until then it was going to be kept her deep dark secret.

She noticed that Puck had stopped looking through her closet as he pulled out a black t-shirt that had nothing on it. She squinted as to what a black shirt would do to work it's way into their night. She hadn't seen that shirt in forever, she forgot she even had it.

"We're not going to be preforming anything illegal tonight, right?" Rachel's eyes widened. Black was the color of night, and the color of robberies.

"Eh. There's a pretty good chance that we don't." Puck said as he continued the search. She couldn't see his smirk.

"A good chance? I don't accept that. I want a promise that we will not, under any circumstances, get into anything illegal." Rachel said firmly.

Puck found what he was looking for. A pair of jeans that were the skinny style with rips in them. He didn't know Rachel Berry could have pants like this. It's actually something in style, and it's in style now, not thirty years ago. He pulled them out and looked down at her.

"Are you the same Rachel that wants to try smoke pot with me? Last time I checked, that wasn't legal, darling." He said and handed the clothes to her. She rolled her eyes at him and walked into her bathroom. She locked the door behind her and took off her shorts.

"That didn't answer my question." He told her through the door.

She slipped into the jeans and pulled them up with a jump. They fit tighter then they used to. At first that worried her a little. She couldn't be getting fat, that wasn't on her agenda. Maybe it had to do with the fact that these pants were three years old, and obviously her body was starting to finally fill out in all of the places it should have been. She smiled to herself when she came to that realization. It was about time.

"It's legal in some states, like California for instance. Apparently you can get it out of vending machines if it's from a medical condition that you need it." She said as she pulled up her shirt. She made sure her eyes didn't move as she took it off and put the new one on. She didn't want to catch even a glimpse of her bruise. The bruise wasn't that bad, she's had worse from mishaps when she's had dance class. It was the memory... and the _shape _it was in. That's what hurt the most. A hand print of all things.

"We're not in Cali, Rachel. But maybe I need to make it there and give myself a sleeping disorder some time." He said with a smirk.

He was leaning against the door frame on the side of the door where it would open. He wasn't really expecting her to be done as fast as she was, and it caught him off guard.

This was the first time he's ever seen Rachel Berry look... normal. Beautifully normal. He scanned his eyes over her curves, tracing them all into his memory. The shirt was tight, and seemed to fit her just right. The jeans couldn't have looked better on anyone else.

"Noah?" Rachel asked. He heard the nervous in her voice.

"That looks amazing on you." He said, sending her a reassuring smile.

Her cheeks turned on like a traffic light going from yellow to red, "Thank you..."

They stared at each other for a good minute, both with smiling faces to match. There was some sort of trance that he was in. She was the same way. It's as if they both knew they were staring, but they couldn't break out of it.

"So where are we going?" Rachel asked, making her eyes pull away from his.

He shook his head to get out of the trance she put him under, "After it gets close to dark and our ride gets here."

Their eyes looked towards the window, and saw that the sun was going down. There was a horn honking outside. He looked back at her and smirked.

"You ready to start paying your dues?" Puck said grabbing her hand and leading her out of her room.

* * *

**AN:** Yay! Glee's starting off with a hit. God, it's so amazing! :D


	8. Listen, Do You Smell Something?

**AN: **I'm more than aware that the wait has been long enough. I'm sorry to everyone. I lost touch with Glee after the season ended and I just didn't have the same inspiration as I did in the first place. I'm going to fix it though and get back to writing as much as I can until this is over. (: I hope you all can forgive me, and leave me a review so I know you're still on board with the story.

**Listen, Do You Smell Something? – Four Year Strong.**

_I fell asleep with the light on  
to keep the darkness around me  
from trying to drown me.  
But little did I know  
that the light was just a glow.  
'Cause I don't wanna try for an escape.  
When one mistake is all it takes.  
I'll jump the line from state to state  
just for the taste of a better fate so bittersweet._

Rachel locked the door behind them and took in a deep breath. She kept telling herself that she was ready for what the night was going to have in store for them. She could put up with whatever Noah Puckerman could dish out. She wanted to get close to him. Something inside her was telling her that she needed to. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it meant so much to her. So much.

"Hurry up, Berry." Puck yelled from the car. He was already talking to his friend's who moved from inside the car, to out on the hood. She turned around with her eyes rolling.

"Her name's Berry?" Shelby asked. "Hippy parents?"

"Naw, her name's Rachel and her last name's Berry." Puck explained. "I just call her Berry because I can." Rachel walked up behind Puck, hidden slightly behind him. She wouldn't admit it to him, but she was nervous. "Rachel, this is Shelby, Justin or Jay, and Dougie."

"Whuddup Berry?" Dougie asked tilting his head to the side. He was laying on the front of the car, with his back against the windshield. A joint in his hand. He inhaled another hit and held it in.

"So is this gonna be your first party?" Shelby asked. She nodded.

"Ha, we've got ourselves a virgin." Justin said clapping his hands together, "It's been a while since we've had one around our little group. We should get going though; I don't want to get there after every form of drink gets laced with something."

"Believe it or not, that seems like a good idea. I'd rather pick what's going into my body tonight." Shelby said. Rachel noticed it was in a joking turn. She was more scared then she was earlier. People could lace her drink with something? That made her overly nervous. She didn't want to try anything but the marijuana. That seemed like a good way to look into Puck's life but she suddenly wondered how much Puck really had tried, or actually did on a normal basis.

She didn't even notice that everyone was already getting into the car. Puck noticed her staring at the ground in a dazed look he's gotten used to. It was her daydreaming face. He grabbed her hand and she jumped slightly looking at him. He thought it had just spooked her, but he didn't know that a jolt went up her arm grabbing her attention. "C'mon Berry."

He led her to the car door and got in first. He didn't want her to be more uncomfortable then she already seemed to be by making her sit next to Dougie. He was friendly and one of the greatest people Puck knew, but it had to be weird enough for her to be in a car of complete strangers than to have Dougie in his high state try and talk to her.

Rachel was quiet the whole ride, and that worried Puck more then it should have. Rachel didn't fit in with this type of crowd. She didn't go to parties; Puck didn't even think she's ever been invited to a party before. He put his hand over her's and smiled at her when she looked up in confusion. She then smiled and nudged him.

"Where are we going?" Dougie asked. He was down to the end of his blunt. He was obviously high. He offered some of what was left to Puck. He looked at Rachel.

"To that party, remember?" Shelby stated nicely.

Jay on the other hand wasn't so nice, "To your mom's house, dip shit."

As they started to argue over the fact that it was inappropriate to mention Dougie's parents in general, Puck turned his attention to Rachel.

"Do you mind?" He asked. He wanted to make sure she didn't really care of he did some now instead of later. He wouldn't be high from one hit; he might just get a good vibe going.

"No. Please, go ahead." She said with a reassuring smile. She was sure that at some point in time, Puck had been around her high at some point, but she couldn't really remember it. She was curious. Then again, she thought he would be high from one hit.

He shrugged and took the joint from Dougie. He inhaled deeply. She was trying not to stare, but she ended up doing it anyway. She watched the paper burn down as he sucked in slowly. She was amazed that his lung capacity could hold that much smoke. She remembered a time when she burnt some toast and the smoke from just the toaster made her cough for hours. Now this was making her more nervous. She didn't want to look like a fool her first time smoking.

He gave what was left of the joint back to Dougie. He leaned his head back against the head rest and held his breath until his lungs couldn't take it anymore. The smoke left his lips in a neatly conformed puff of smoke.

She looked away as his eyes opened and his head was right where it was before. He smiled at Dougie, "Kryp?"

"Yeah man. That's the good shit." He said finishing the joint and flicking it out the window.

The sun was already down when they pulled up to the front lawn. There were a lot of cars in front of the house. It was a familiar sight for Rachel. It was the same atmosphere that she experienced the first night she found Puck. She didn't feel as nervous, but there was still a hint of anxiety in her head. She knew that it was going to get worse when she got inside. She surveyed the scene as they found a parking spot.

Some people were already there, and while Puck's friends all went to mingle and get their hands on some alcohol, Rachel and Puck stood by the door staring out at the room. People were already tripping, laughing, giggling and shit. They lolled around on the ground, stared up at the ceiling, or danced in a sway like manner to the music pounding from the stereo. Puck thought it was something old like The Who or Frank Zappa, something like that. Dougie would know. He would know the band, the album, the song, the track of the song on the album, and the albums original release date. And if he really liked the band, he could probably name all the members, past and present. He was Puck's own personal music guru.

Dougie made his way over to me, but before he could ask him what band was playing, he spoke up, "Mikey Rock and me are ground control, dude," he pushed a can of beer in his hand and made a drinking motion as if to say 'bottom's up', then clapped a hand against his shoulder, smiling solemnly. Puck nodded, seeing that some of the other people were already drinking from similar cans of beer, and well on their way to wasted.

"Berry, you want some?" Dougie asked politely. I was glad that he was actually attempting to bring Rachel into a comfort zone. He had first hand experience on being the new kid. Shelby and Justin really didn't try and keep her in the loop. It was like Jay didn't want anything to do with her, but Puck knew it was just because she was a new kid on the block. She wasn't used to going as hard as Jay could. He probably wasn't happy that he brought her, but it didn't matter because in reality, Jay was a prick to begin with. He didn't sweat anything Jay dished out.

Rachel took the can hesitantly. She got the feeling of her nerves going into battle now. She sort of felt like she was going to puke, run a mile, and sort of like she already had all at the same time. It was an exhilarating feeling; sort of like she was just about to go on stage for a show that she was planning on singing her heart out for.

_Bottoms up… _She thought to herself.

Before Puck could tell her to hang on a second before she started to drink, she was chugging it.

"Whoa! Rachel. Stop." Puck said, but Dougie was egging her to keep going. She finished the can and coughed a little before she let her eyes open wide and close. She shook off the shock of what she was drinking.

"Jeeze girl. You could toss back and keep up with us if you tried." Dougie said before rushing off to get himself, and maybe even Rachel another beer. Puck was amazed she decided to start off that hard. It took him a few parties to do what she did just now.

"That was weird Rachel. You might want to consider taking it easy. This is your first party right?" She nodded. "Then slow down. Do what you want, but with some sort of control."

"Well still, I need some guidance. I'm a party virgin, remember?" Rachel said. She moved slightly closer to him as a girl tried to get through the door she just noticed they were blocking.

"I'll tell you what. You go walk in some general direction and I'll follow you. Do what you want, and I'll follow suit to make sure that you're not going to get too fucked up the first time you're at a party. Go smoke, go drink, go pop some ecstasy." He said with a smirk.

She looked at him with a nervous glance. She didn't really like the sound of that, "Promise to keep me away from anything that is going to affect me in a way I'm not prepared for."

"I promise." He said. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She didn't let him drop it like he was going to. She held on tight and that sent him all the signs that she was nervous. It sort of surprised him that he was getting the nervous Rachel. He had a feeling that was something that didn't exist. Maybe in legend but never in reality.

She pulled his hand and made him trek farther into the crowd of loud teenagers.

Rachel was a woman on a mission. She was scanning the tables and rooms for anything that looked remotely safe. She made her way to the kitchen, and considered asking Noah if that would be a good place to look for something for them to do, but he was too busy talking to almost every person who walked by. It seemed like he knew everyone, and they all knew him. Has he really gotten that popular? It bugged Rachel to a point. She hated when anyone else was the center of attention that wasn't her. Even at a party.

"Puckerman! Whuddup, dude! Long time no see, buddy." A guy with a very long scruffy beard called out as Rachel watched them lock hands together. They did a guy hug without Puck letting her go. That sort of warmed her heart… until she noticed she was stuck in the middle of a crowd. Her mild case of claustrophobia was starting to bubble to the surface.

She moved towards the closest table that was full of cups and bottles and grabbed the first cup she saw that had a liquid in it that looked as close to plain water as she would be able to get at this party. She took a giant gulp and at first with it going down didn't feel anything until the after burn hit her. Her eyes went wide and she felt like she was swallowing hot sauce. She downed half the cup and she could already feel it burning it's way though the contents of her stomach and moving up into her brain. She had to admit, she didn't mind the taste like she thought she would have.

The next thing she knew, someone ripped the cup out of her hand. She had to take a minute to figure out who it was.

"Rachel, what the hell are you doing chugging Vodka?" Puck asked with wide eyes.

"I thought it was water." She said innocently. The alcohol was already starting to take it's toll on her body. This is what happens when you bring a light weight drinker to a full blow kegger.

Puck hit his forehead, "Rachel, you can't go around drinking whatever looks like something you're familiar with. Some of this shit is laced. You've gotta be more careful."

"Laced?" She asked as he put the drink back on the table. He reached under the table and grabbed her a new cup from the middle of the stack. He rubbed the rim with his shirt, and lifted it to the hose on the Keg. Another partier helped him out by pumping the beer out for him. He said a thank you before handing it to Rachel.

"Laced as in someone put something in your drink. Roofies which will basically make you pass out and not remember a damn thing, it's also known as the Date Rape drug, or they could have slipped you acid. Find Dougie in about twenty minutes and you'll see what I'm talking about, except he takes it on purpose." Puck tried to explain.

Rachel shook her head like she was paying attention. She really wasn't. All her mind was doing was thinking about how smart Puck had a tendency to be in real life. In her case, she was all book smarts and he was smart with everything else. She absent mindedly drank her beer, faster than she noticed.

This wasn't as hard as she assumed it would be. She thought that drinking would just be something that would make her nauseous and have her heeled over in a bush puking after the first drink. She couldn't imagine actually liking how it tasted. Then again, with Noah Puckerman nothing was what she expected.

The effects were already washing over her. She didn't think they'd hit her this hard or this fast. She was already stumbling around and being off balance.

Puck couldn't actually party. He was too busy playing babysitter. He didn't mind it as much as he had in the past. When Jay would over do himself and be so out of it, he'd talk to trees. Acid isn't really his friend.

"What the hell?" Someone yelled from behind Puck who was guiding Rachel through the crowd of people that has slimmed out a little, but not enough for his comfort. "Puckerman!"

Puck turned around, making sure he had a grip on Rachel so she wouldn't stumble up the stairs or over people for that matter. She wasn't in her right mind, but it was a good state to be in. She wasn't going to have a huge hang over and she wouldn't be puking if she had a strong stomach.

Puck searched the crowd until he saw who called his name. The tallest person in the front crowd.

"Uh… Noah, why is Finn here?" Rachel asked walking or in her case stumbling into him with a stupid little giggle he found annoying and adorable at the same time.

"I've got no fucking idea." Puck mumbled as he watched Finn make his way to them.

"Why would you bring Rachel here? Are you insane? You're doing exactly what I told you not to do. You're corrupting that poor girl." He yelled over the music.

"Finn, shush. It's fine. I'm fine." Rachel tried to tell him. He could smell the alcohol on her breath.

"Is she drunk…?" He couldn't believe it. Rachel was supposed to be the sober, straight edge kid that everyone thought was the biggest goody good the school had ever seen. She was messing up her reputation just by being here.

"Slightly, but it's a party, bro, she'll be just fine. I'm taking care of her." Puck explained, putting a protective arm around Rachel.

"I'm getting her out of here before you ruin the old Rachel." Finn said with more power and force than Puck or Rachel expected from their sweet ol' Finn Hudson. He reached out and grabbed Rachel's hand, pulling her away from Puck.

"Finn stop, I want to stay." She said trying to pull away from him, but his hand was twice the size of her hand and she couldn't squeeze free. He started pulling her through the crowd. Puck followed not saying a word.

He felt horrible. He wasn't trying to ruin the old Rachel. He knew he had problems with the old way she acted, but it wasn't anything he didn't enjoy having around, her anal way of telling everyone how to be better, getting everyone to work harder, getting everyone to go along with her ideas. He wanted to light himself on fire when she got like that, but it was a sensation he wouldn't mind having every day if it meant being around her beautiful voice, and her great smile. The pros always outweighed the cons when it came to her.

Rachel wasn't thinking that straight, or she would have realized that if she wanted to, she could have pulled back and away from Finn instead of just focusing on getting his hand off of her wrist. She was mad at Finn. More mad then she's ever been at someone else in her whole life. She wanted to stay with Puck. She didn't want to be with Finn right now.

"Finn. Leave me here. Go back to your house. Let me stay with Noah." Rachel whined. She was still twisting at her wrist.

"Hell no, Rachel. This isn't you, you're not the girl getting drunk at the party. You're the goody good that stays home and works towards her goal of being a Tony award winner or getting an Oscar."

"And you don't think those people party?" She said laughing. "Read a magazine some time, or talk to Quinn. I'm sure she's doing that right now."

Finn thought he heard a sort of harsh tone coming out of Rachel when she said Quinn's name, "Is that why you're hanging out with Puck all the sudden? Because of Quinn and I?"

"What?" Rachel asked, her feet locking in place. "That's ridiculous."

"That actually explains a lot. Rachel, I know you like me, but that's no excuse to go out and get wasted with my best friend to try and get me jealous, it won't work."

"Are you kidding me? I'm doing this because it was my choice," He got Rachel out of that really quick. She pulled her wrist away from Finn in a quick motion. "Your relationship status with Quinn has absolutely nothing to do with my life choices."

Puck and Dougie walked up behind the already screaming Rachel.

"Is this how she gets when she's mad?" Dougie asked, sipping from a beer can.

"This is the mild version." He answered, looking at him with serious face.

"God help the man she marries." He said before turning on his heel and walking back to the party with a little lightness to his step.

Puck watched as Rachel kept going, "There isn't anything about your relationship that I have a problem with, nor do I care about. Your egotistical, narcissistic attitude doesn't make something true. I don't care about anything you do with Quinn. Go lose your virginity to her, go elope with her, I don't care anymore, Finn."

She yelled her final words and walked back to Puck who was waiting patiently in shock. Finn turned around and stormed down the lawn and down towards his car, "Fuck it, Rachel. Do whatever you want, Ruin your life like Puck for all I care. Don't come crying to me when your life turns out like his."

Then he slammed the car door and sped away down the road.

Puck was in silence and Rachel was fuming, "I need a drink."

"After you, ma'am." Puck said doing a fake little bow. She smiled a little and headed back inside…

**AN: **I hope it was worth the wait. :]

VVVVPLEASEVVVV


	9. Secondary Characters

**AN:** I'm sort of disappointed in the reviews I'm glad I got a few favorites and alerts, but I guess when you do that, reviews don't matter? I just want feedback.

It was early that Monday morning.

Finn was walking Quinn to her locker. Mercedes and Kurt were talking with Tina and Artie on their cell phones from across the hall, a waste of minutes but worth the money, apparently. Matt was talking to Santana and Brittney at Brittney's locker.

They all just so happened to be in the same hallway of McKinley High.

Rachel and Puck were just now getting to school. Puck drove Rachel's car to school because she was in no shape to drive after the night they just experienced. Puck kept apologizing to her about their timing. He should have picked a party that was on a Saturday, instead of a Sunday before school. He was an idiot, and decided that Rachel should agree with him on that matter, but she didn't let him take the blame. If it actually mattered that much, she could have told him that they would wait a little longer until the next time they had a party on the horizon. It didn't.

Although her hang over was a harsh awakening to the partying life style, "It's fine. I took Advil and some Excedrin for the light sensitivity. I'll be fine, Noah."

"You say that now. Come rehearsal you're going to be an irritable zombie." He smirked pulling into a parking spot towards the football field and Glee room. He handed her the keys and got out. She shoved them in her purse and got her designer sun glasses out of the glove box and put them neatly on her face.

Puck waited patiently by the front of the parking lot for her to catch up.

In her mind it passed that Puck was a gentle man. He waited for her, protected her, stood up for her, and made sure that she was happy before him self. Especially at the party last night when she was drinking. He made sure she was drinking the right amount of liquor, things that were considered safe to drink, and kept her away from all of the drunken fools that were around.

She smiled at him and walked up to the front of the building talking to him about how everything was fine.

When the walked into the building, everything stopped. Everyone from Glee, from the football team, even some of the teachers that were migrating to their homerooms stopped and looked at the entering Rachel and Puck. For a minute, the duo didn't even know they were being watched. Puck got her to her locker before leaning against the closed one next to it and surveyed the area around them when he noticed.

Some of the people acted like they weren't staring, while people like Finn and Kurt couldn't stop staring at them with a gaping hole in their face.

Puck smirked, but basically paid no mind to them. The bell rang out through the hallways and people started heading to class. Finn glared as he walked by with Quinn on his arm, and Puck's smirk only got wider.

He put a hand on the bottom of Rachel's back, "I'll see you at Glee practice."

"Okay. Bye." She said with a smile, grabbing her books for A.P English out of her locker and heading down the hallway. Puck watched for a minute with a day dream about her. Walking her to class, with his arm around her shoulders. The thought made him happy. He turned on his heal with a gigantic smile on his face and devious thoughts in his head…

**Mercedes and Kurt** arrived to the auditorium a little earlier than they were supposed to that Monday afternoon. As luck would have it, they both were graced with the same gym class, and the same lazy teacher that wouldn't noticed if there was an elephant in the locker room blocking half the class from getting dressed out. Needless to say, they stayed for attendance, and left quickly after.

"Are we really this early?" Mercedes asked as they walked onto the stage. They both found it very weird that there was already a spot light for the center of the stage on.

Kurt looked back into the wings of the stage and smiled to himself, "Looks as though that may be the case. I think it's time for a little practice of our own, don't you think?"

She smiled at him and went to the middle of the stage and took a pose. Kurt laughed at her and went over to the boom box that was positioned on the front of stage left. He put in a blank topped CD and turned it on number 12.

"Follow my lead," He said taking a position next to her on stage. He knew she already knew the song, all he had to do was start it off. "Now it's only you and me."

She laughed and smiled at him, "With no one to tell us what to do."

They both started singing together, "What do we do?"

"We don't have much time to dance in the spotlight," Kurt sang putting an arm around Mercedes, "So I'm going to treasure this Mercedes and Kurt duet."

"And now may be the only chance I get tonight to enjoy the pleasure of this invisible cigarette." She held up her hands and Kurt put up a 'lighter'.

She put it against his skin, "Ow." Again, "Ow!"

They started getting really into the song, moving and grooving along with the beat, "The secondary characters are singing a song, while the stars are snacking off-stage. It was their idea to bring us along and now we're hijacking this page of the script. We're equipped to steer the ship 'til this trippy skit ends, and by the end of this song, we'll be best friends."

Kurt got very close to Mercedes face, "I want to apologize for any weirdness."

Mercedes copied him and latched onto him, "Me too. It can be really scary being the new kid."

"I bet."

"I'll bet you bet."

"I do, I bet."

Kurt meant this part, so he shook off their smiling, dancing attitudes and looked her dead in the eyes, "And I also want to say that after all we've been through I'm so glad we've met."

"I feel the same way." She agreed. "Word."

They shared a moment of friendship before breaking into the song all over again. This time, there was no togetherness, no choreography, no certain motion; it was a free for all.

"BABY, the secondary characters are calling the shots. While the guys are being stored in the wings, we've been left in charge of it all while the plot is unfolding like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, in a way, you and me, 'til the very end. And like Frodo and Sam Wise, you'll be my best friend. My best friend."

"Sing!" Kurt yelled to Mercedes, and she started acting like there was a mixing board in front of her, making the screeching noises as well as she could while still dancing with her ass shaking and her natural rhythm going.

"My best friend."

Unlike Kurt who was 'bustin' a move'. His eyes were closed and his body was moving every which way, "Mercedes! And Kurt. Mercedes and Kurt. Mercedes. Dream on... Dream on... Dream on..."

They were so into their song that they didn't notice Mr. Shue and the rest of their fellow Gleeks walk in though the side of the stage. He cleared his through as the rest of them tried to hold in their laughter.

Mercedes was the first to notice. She stopped moving and her eyes went wide. Puck was cracking up with absolutely no regard for how it was going to make them feel when they found out, and Rachel was trying to get him to have a little respect for his "fellow performers" while Mr. Shue was even laughing. Finn was holding in his laughter, Quinn was wearing a genuine smile that was rare for her to have on these days. Brittney and Santana thought they looked like total morons. And of course, Artie and Tina were dancing where they were, giving their closest Gleeks some support.

Mercedes turned to Kurt and grabbed onto his shirt sleeve and forced him to look at their audience. His eyes went wide, "How... How long have you been here?"

"Some where in between the first and last 'dream on!'" Finn said, acting like Kurt was. He received laughs all around.

They both blushed. Kurt shook it off, "We were just practicing."

"I actually liked it guys," Mr. Shue said with a laugh, "I think that could be a good way to kick off what I was about to tell you guys. We're doing a show that's going to be titled "Spotlight" and it's going to involve all of you doing your own song, or a duet with someone else from the club. It's a way to showcase our talent and let the whole school see instead of having it in another town where most of the students here wouldn't go to watch you."

"If anyone wants to watch us…" Santana mumbled as she twirled her pony tail and Britney smiled.

"With that defeatist attitude, I wouldn't doubt it." Rachel said, glaring at Santana who only smirked in return.

"Will it matter what songs we do?" Finn asked, clutching Quinn's hand. She wasn't herself today. She seemed to be dreamier eyed than normal. No one had asked Quinn what was wrong, so you could safely assume no one noticed.

Well, no one except Rachel. It made her think that Finn and Quinn had been going though a rough time. It put a pang of hope into her heart. Even though she was a bitch to Finn the night prior, she still wanted to be with him. It may not be as much as she had in the past, but it was still there. Now she only felt like she might have some option to her feelings. Puck or Finn?

"It won't matter that much. Just keep it PG. I would prefer to have some actual Broadway music in the show, which I'm sure Rachel could help anyone out with," Rachel smiled at Mr. Shue and waved to everyone as if they didn't already know who she was. "But a modern day song would work out well. You're also required to do your own choreography and stage effects."

"Well, that's easy enough." Artie said. He looked up at Tina and it looked like they had an unspoken agreement to be partners.

"I'll leave you guys to it then." Mr. Shue said with a smile. He walked off stage and went up to his desk.

Puck turned to Rachel, "Do you want to be partners?"

Everyone on stage got an octave lower. They were eavesdropping and talking shit all at the same time. A fine art that Santana and Britney brought to the group and infected Kurt with. Finn was trying to ignore it, but even he knew that he didn't want them spending anymore time together. He tried to keep his attention on Quinn, but it was hard when her mind was in another world.

"I think this would actually work out better as a solo project. This way I can express my love of theater and have no one hold me back. Not that you're a bad performer or anything, but I feel like my skills are stronger than yours." Rachel said. Puck looked bummed. She bit her lip, "Oh! Or maybe I can be your partner, but you won't be mine?"

"How would that even-"

"I'll have my own song, and you'll have a song I do with you. Understand?" She said with a smile that made him feel slightly better. Not like he was getting rejected because he was a shitty performer.

"I guess that'd work. I get to pick the song though, right?" He asked as his phone vibrated in his pocket. He fished it out.

"Of course, but I'll have to approve of the song." She said.

Puck read the text: "Meet me after practice… We need to talk. –Quinn". He locked eyes with her before Mr. Shue dismissed everyone from practice…

**Quinn **sat on the bleachers. She played with her ponytail and fiddled her phone in her hand. She was opening and closing it every few seconds as if she had some OCD to blame it on. Her eyes were squinted and her mind was in tangles. She played out this situation a million times in her head during the day. It would be fine. Not hard at all. Just a few simple words.

"Puck… I'm pregnant." She said out loud, just to practice once more before he showed up.

"You're what…?"

Quinn's head shot around and looked up at Puck who was standing a few steps up the bleachers from her. The squinted eyes she had on turned into teary ones at the look on his face, "Pregnant. With a baby. Your baby."

At that moment, Puck's life flashed before his eyes. It was full of baby wipes and dippers.

**AN:** I hope for a few reviews. **The song Kurt and Mercedes did **is from the broadway show called {Title Of Show} and the song is Secondary Characters. I found it rather perfect for their characters.


	10. Misery

Rachel waited patiently by her locker. She found herself letting her mind wandering into the green eyes of the notorious, Noah Puckerman.

It was starting to actually feel normal, as opposed to the disgusting feeling she had in her gut when she would catch herself thinking about him in the past. The way his smile widened when someone made a dumb joke, how he noticed little details about her, and how his voice really did compliment her own. That might have been what started the attraction in the first place.

Her mind automatically started choosing song titles to test out with him in case his choice didn't work out. Even if it did, she still wanted to test his vocal range.

Speak of the devil...

She shoved her text book into her locker before slamming it shut. She turned around just in time to see him pass her by, looking down at his feet walking in front of him. Rachel felt her heart sink.

Something was wrong.

"Noah?" She asked, rushing after him. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"No." was all he said before he picked up his pace.

She was already struggling to keep up, but now he was a few feet in front of her, as she struggled to keep the speed. "What happened?"

He didn't answer.

Puck kept walking until he was finding himself at the exit of the school. This was too much for him to handle right now. The girl he almost forgot he had feelings for was no pregnant with his child, while the girl he thought he wanted to be with was trailing him.

He couldn't possibly tell Rachel about this... it'd kill her.

She lost Finn to Quinn, and now it seemed that she was going to lose Puck to Quinn, too. His mind shifted back to the bleachers...

"You're..."

"Pregnant." She answered for him.

There was a metallic taste in his mouth, making it harder and harder to form a proper sentence, "how did this happen?"

"Are you serious?" she asked him with her 'scary Quinn' tone. "I sometimes wonder why I even let you talk me into this..."

"The wine coolers..." he smacked himself in the forehead. "Fuck."

"You've got that right..." Quinn said, pulling her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on top of them as Puck sat down next to her.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. Should he leave? Hold her? Tell her everything's going to be alright? He was never good with this type of thing. Especially when he was trying to focus on the topic himself.

That's when she started to cry.

"Quinn, don't cry." He said, putting his arm around her in an awkward position. All he felt like doing was running away. He didn't want to be a dad. He didn't want to be responsible for ruining this poor girl's life. It was his way of dealing with things: running from them.

"How am I not supposed to cry? I'm pregnant. This is the worst thing that could ever happen to me. I'm going to lose every chance of staying a Cheerio, I'll lose Finn, keeping my status as popular, and what are my parents going to think? I'm the president of the celibacy club, for God's sakes." She sniffled and whipped at her eyes. He couldn't help but notice how her voice sounded even more nasally than normal.

"Are you going to get rid of it?" He asked in more lament terms than he really meant to.

She looked at him with a glare, "I can't, Puckermen. It goes against everything I believe in."

"So? Think good and hard about what's right for this thing-"

"It's not a thing, it's our baby." Quinn spat.

"For this_ baby,_ happy?" He retorted before getting up.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked.

"Away." He began walking down the steps and down onto the track.

Quinn instantly got up and followed him down to the banister, "you can't just run away from this. It's your fault this happened to me."

"Just like everything else is my fault, right?" Puck mumbled to himself as he walked away from her, ignoring her opinions and annoying calls for him to come back.

This was the greatest thing to ever happen to him, he could swear by it. He couldn't figure out what to do with himself.

The only thing that he could think to do was take out his phone. He quickly dialed Jay's number on his phone. One, two, three rings before he answered in a groggy tone, "what?"

"Pick me up. I need to do something," Puck ordered, jumping the fence that surrounded the track instead of walking around the outside.

"What kind of a something?"

"Anything, just pick me up at the high school."

He could hear Jay groan as he got up out of his bed, or so he assumed, and began to move. "Alright, give me like... ten minutes."

"Cool." Was all he said before he hung up the phone...

It's been almost five minutes before he got through the school, and the one person he wanted to avoid was trailing him now. What the fuck was he supposed to do? He wanted to tell her to fuck off. Wanted her to go away until he could figure out what he felt, or what he was supposed to do, instead of Rachel talking his ear off.

"What's going on?" She pressed again before they both were outside, in front of the school.

"Rachel, drop it." he ordered before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a carton of Cigarettes, ripping open the lid and taking out what seemed to be his last one. As soon as he hung up the phone before, he smoked two in the matter of two minutes, and he felt the nauseous feeling as if it was his first time all over again.

"You can't smoke this out here!" Rachel said, trying to grab the newly heated cigarette out of his hand.

If it wasn't for the baby on his mind, he would have attempted to flirt with her; grabbing her hands, turning her around every time she got close, holding it well above her height. It wasn't fun to do though...

He couldn't even think about her. His mind shot back to the words Quinn just touched his life with.

His best friend's girlfriend was now pregnant with his child. How fucked up could Puck make his own life? Not even. How fucked up could Puck make everyone's life that was just involved in his own?

Countless times he's gotten Finn in trouble, not only at school or in public, but even with his own mother. Ms. Hudson has taken Puck into her house countless times, and it was hard on her. It was feeding two mouths as apposed to one on an already too small paycheck. He was so greatful for having that family in his life, and he couldn't thank them enough.

Now he was about to lose the real family that took care of him, along with his best friend all over a drunken mistake... too bad Finn wouldn't understand the situation.

Not only was he killing Finn's life, he just ruined Quinn's.

A girl he used to lust after, and take every chance he possibly had to be around her; even if it meant that he was supposed to sit there while Finn and his girlfriend made out in front of him.

She was everything he used to look for in a girl: the soft voice that didn't hurt his ear, the way her eyes sparkled when she smiled, how gorgeous he thought she was... if this was another place, another life, he would have been so happy that he got her pregnant. If she hadn't been with Finn, and if he hadn't found Rachel.

His mind snapped back into reality, as a car horn honked in front of him, and a small girl finally gave up. A vicious hand grabbed at the back of his shirt, pulling him away from the curb, "what on this disgusting planet do you think you're doing?"

The hand maneuvered him so he was face to face with the one and only, Sue Sylvester. This was the last thing he needed right now, "smoking a cigarette."

"On my school campus? I don't think so. My office," she yelled. Then she took a step closer to his face. "Now, fo-hawk."

"Fuck off." and with that, he ignored the sarcastic comments the coach was spitting at him, and went into the car with Jay, noticing that Dougie was sitting in the back, laid out as if he was asleep. Puck took it another step too far and flicked his still lit cigarette out of the car and next to Sue's foot.

He took one more regretful look at Rachel before he let Jay pull out of the parking lot.

"Did he just tell me to fuck off?" Sue asked, completely and utterly astonished. "What a Jewish asshole..."

Rachel looked at her in confusion, before turning to watch the car drive down the street. What was going on in that man's head today? He was being even more self closed than normal. It was really starting to bother her. It felt like she just took thirty steps back in her progress to get into his life.

She began to walk away from the scene as Sue started to yell at all of the students to get off her campus. She must have been doing that because her ego was damaged by the embarrassment. Sadly, she caught wind of Rachel trying to escape, "hold it right there elephant girl."

"Elephant girl? I don't even know how that applies to me," Rachel gave her a tilted glance as she tried to work it out in her head.

"Your nose is so big I often mistake you for an elephant, it's an understandable mistake." And before Rachel could send out her rebuttal, she started again, "it's come to my attention that you're friends with this shit mouth. Let him know he's on my list. Oh man, is he on my list."

She turned away from the curb and faced the school, parting the sea of students better than Moses could ever dream to, confiscating the hat of a innocent tenth grader as she walked.

Rachel sighed, giving one last glance to the exit of the school before she began her trek over to the student parking lot. Her hand fished her phone out of her skirt pocket, just to make sure she hadn't missed a call or a text in the last four minutes. Nothing came up and it made her heart hurt.

She was minding her own business, just walking by the outer edge of the track, listening to the sound of sobbing from under the bleachers. It also seemed like there was another voice comforting the other. She strained her neck to look around the corner of the fence that was attached to the bleachers. Her heart jumped into her chest as soon as she saw a crying Quinn and an upset Finn.

Could they have just broken up? Was this really happening right now?

Her impulse to get closer grew more and more. She grabbed onto the side of the fence and pulled herself up, and it took all of her strength just to get off the ground. Her body wasn't built for climbing, or any sports in general, and it was almost impossible for her to get to the top without falling or losing her grip. It sent a proud sensation into her chest as she stepped onto the bleachers.

Her shoes clicked along the titanium as she tried desperately to stop it before she gave away her position. The quick to react part of her mind instantly told her to take off her shoes, as she placed them in her bag. This would be the last time she attempted to wear heels to school, no matter what Kurt said.

How she managed to get over the fence with those on still amazed her.

She could hear the voices of the people below getting louder. It was becoming more difficult to decipher what they were saying, due to the rowdy track team that was entering the field for their warm ups.

Rachel pin pointed where she was supposed to be standing, to be directly on top of them. She crouched down and tried her best to hear every word that was being exchanged between them.

Quinn's sobbing couldn't mask the words Finn was speaking, "Everything's going to be fine... I didn't even know it could work like that..."

His tone shook Rachel to the bone. He sounded terrified, and it was the weakest she'd ever hear him sound. She closed her eyes as she pictured what was happening under the bleachers at that very moment.

Quinn pulled away from Finn for a second, and looked up at him. "It's a hot tub. The perfect temperature for sperm to travel..."

"But don't I actually have to, ya know, get it in for it to work?"

She sniffled, "not exactly..."

_Get what in...?_ Rachel questioned. Then everything clicked. She replayed the previous exchange of words through her head. Quinn was pregnant... and Finn was the father.

She sunk back into herself. Her mind was racing as her movement slowed. Her thighs hit the cool bleachers, and the shock didn't even phase her. She wanted to cry, and scream, and hate both of them forever, but she didn't. It was too much of a shock for her to handle.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, causing the bleachers to make it sound louder than it should have been. Rachel's heart started again, startling her. The screen glowed "Noah Puckerman" and showed her the envelope.

* * *

Her finger shook as she pressed the open button, "I need you. Now."

AN: New Season, new insparation.


	11. Wishing Well

_On the narrowing line, _

_what a way to sort my troubles_

_In a very short time, gonna pop, _

_better duck and cover_

_Can you figure me out? _

_I got caught like a little kid stealing_

_Did I say it too loud? _

_A bit hard or a little misleading_

_Wishing Well_ – **Blink-182**

"Pull over," Puck ordered, getting his seat belt off as fast as he could. His hands clutched onto his stomach as he fought back the urge to vomit across his friend's dashboard. A disgusting burp escaped through his mouth, giving him a horrible taste to go along with the smell.

"We're on the fucking overpass, man," Jay stated as he pulled over as fast as he could, getting a round of honks for his actions.

He reluctantly stopped and let Puck jump out of the car. He rushed out onto the sidewalk, almost tripping on the too close curb. He stumbled a little more before he could grab and support himself on the safety rail before his stomach emptied onto the pavement, and unfortunate cars below.

"That's bad ass," he heard Dougie say behind him, probably sticking his head out the window. It was almost drowned out by the speeding and honking cars that sped by them.

Puck's hand moved up to wipe his chin. It was catching up to him; all the pressure, fear, guilt- it was all building up in his chest, and it was about to get the best of him. He couldn't break down here. He needed to get somewhere he could be alone... or better yet, with the only person who could calm him down.

He shoved his hand into his pocket, struggling to get it out. His fingers were shaking, along with most of his body. Puck couldn't figure out if it was from just throwing up, or having the weight of the world on his shoulders. He texted her as fast as he could, cursing every time he made a mistake, "I need you."

He could only hope that she got the hint. It would be less than ten minutes before he would be at her house. If she didn't leave her window unlocked, he would have to get into her house some how, and it'd be a shame if she weren't home.

A little envelope stood next to the time on his screen. From the looks of it, there were multiple ones he had missed. They were all from a blonde cheerleader, "we need to talk. I don't think I can just openly lie to Finn about all of this. I love him so much, but I can't make him believe this anymore. He may not be smart, but this whole hot tub thing is too unbelievable. If anyone is going to tell him, it needs to be us. And if I really am going to keep this baby, you're going to have to help me."

He contemplated throwing his phone over the railing, or smashing it with his own hands. Quinn was going to tell Finn with or without his okay. That's just the type of person she turned out to be: a think for yourself kind of girl.

"Go to Rachel's," Puck said, spitting out the extra pieces that were caught in his mouth. He slammed the door closed as he crashed into the broken leather.

"Ah. So this is her fault," Jay said as he cut in front of a large man on a scooter who began cursing incessantly at them.

"No. I need her," he said as he fought off the sinking feeling in his stomach. He had to tell someone. Someone he trusted... and lately, that's who Rachel was to him.

The rest of the ride to her house was quiet, aside from the snaps to pass the joint and the lighter to each other. When they pulled up to her house, Puck got out without a word.

He rushed up the lawn, seriously hoping he had a way into this house. He didn't see Rachel's car anywhere, so he assumed she wasn't home. His first thought was to scale the side of her house, and somehow manage to get up to her window. That was when he noticed her porch ceiling was only a foot or two away from her room.

Puck scaled up the side, grabbing onto the gutter and almost falling before he go to the roof of the porch. He grabbed onto the side of her window and made sure he wouldn't slip. He reached as far as he could with his other hand to test if the glass would actually move when pushed in.

Luckily, it did.

He grabbed onto the inside of the window, locking his fingers against anything he could get his hands on. His hand grasped onto the inner boarder of her bay window, pulling with all of his strength to make sure he got completely in the room.

The act took so much out of him, he almost collapsed on the floor as soon as he touched his palms to her soft, plushy, carpet. He groaned in pain as his leg scrapped against the weather lining, opening his flesh to expose a new layer of skin and blood. His hand applied pressure to his calf, trying to stop the bleeding and stinging that came along with his wound.

"Fuck," he cursed to himself, quite loudly, actually.

It was enough to fall into her window, but the added word confirmed his arrival. Rachel spun around in her bed, feverishly whipping the tears off of her heated cheeks.

"Noah?" a panicked voice spoke as his head shot up. He hadn't even noticed she was in there. The cardigan clad girl rushed over to him and instantly knelt down beside him.

Puck's mind stopped wandering around his problems, and focused on the feeling that was forcing his heart to race. Not only was it Rachel, but his perverted side came to the surface and he found himself being upset that she was too good at kneeling in a skirt.

"Are you okay?" Then she noticed the blood, "oh no. You can't get blood on the carpet, my dad's will kill me. Come to the bathroom."

She grabbed onto his arm, ignoring his confused stare as he helped her pull him to his feet. She didn't let go of his arm until she was able to swing him onto the side of the bathtub, positioned in front of the fuzzy, pink, toilet top. Puck had to move the pink and white polka-dotted, shower curtain out of his way or it would have ripped off the bar.

When he was seated, Rachel spun around in the little space and sunk down below the sink to get to her first aid kit. She pulled out peroxide, gauze, and five different options for a band-aid before getting up. She sat on the closed toilet and wrapped toilet paper over her hand, gently saying, "you know that I have a front door, right?"

He huffed, "it's more bad ass if you come in through the window." He winced as the peroxide mixed into his skin, causing all of the white blood cells to bubble up. She gently rubbed off the extra bubbles before blowing on the wound, lightly.

It took five band-aids to cover the wound, and two butterfly style ones to make sure the cut heeled properly. She looked at him with her classic "you're an idiot" stare, pushing her lips out slightly. "You should attempt to use the door the next time to avoid another injury like this."

"You've been crying."

Her eyes shot up to meet his, which in hindsight was a bad idea. She was fully showing him her droopy, dry, bloodshot eyes. They matched up to the hazel orbs that held concern for the girl, and she felt a little warmth in her chest.

Should she tell him?

Rachel's eyes drifted down to her hands, fumbling against each other as she zoned out of the situation. She knew that Puck has had feelings for Quinn since before they all joined Glee Club, and a part of her still believed that he just joined because she did, regardless of if Quinn was currently dating his best friend. The news might bother him as much as it bothered her.

She really cared about Puck. He was one of the only people she could really refer to as a friend, one she felt she could confide in. She just didn't want to hurt him... "Yeah... I was crying."

"Why? What's wrong?" he felt the disgusting feeling in his chest again. As if he wasn't beating himself up enough, Rachel was probably upset with something he did. Again.

"I don't really know how I'm supposed to go about this, but I over heard Quinn and Finn talking today... I think Finn got Quinn pregnant," she whispered the last portion, as if it was still too horrible to think about.

He still wasn't saying anything.

"I noticed you had feelings for her when I first met you in Glee Club... the way you looked at her was like she was everything to you." Rachel felt the pang of jealousy once more. "Of course you'd like Quinn... she's beautiful and I'm-"

"Don't you even start with that shit, Rachel," Puck cut her off in a strong tone. He wasn't going to let her bring herself down because of this. "Just because you're not tall, or blonde, or have green eyes, doesn't mean anything to me. I liked Quinn because of shallow reasons, and because it was such a challenge to get her into bed. I like you because you're so talented, and genuine, and you're one of the only pretty jews in all of Lima. You mean more to me than she does. More then she ever will."

And then he kissed her.

She was flabbergasted in ways even she didn't understand. Her mind could hardly process what he just told her, and now he was moving his lips against her own. He managed to shift her focus again, landing it on the pure bliss she felt from kissing Noah Puckerman, the most bad ass, and the most known player, in all of McKinley.

He had to do it. She had to know how he felt about her... maybe it would ease the pain that was about to hit her. She would know how much he needed her around.

Against every sensation in his body, he had to pull away.

Rachel was still shocked. He liked her? So what she felt when she was around him was real. It wasn't just her wishful, and somewhat lonely, thinking.

"You..." she pulled her hand away from him, slowly rising off the cozy seat. Her eyes raced around the room as she blinked furiously. "I... you like me?"

"Yes... it might even need to be made into an 'I really like you' instead," he told her, scratching the back of his head. He stood up, looking down at the shocked girl. Her pupils were dilated to twice their normal size.

"But you can't like me... I'm not hot like all the girls you've been with," Rachel stated.

"You're nothing like the other girls I've been with, and that's what attracts me to you. You're smart, and nice when it comes down to it, and when we're not in glee club, and your talent is amazing. You've also got the school girl act going on like a pro, it's kind of a turn on." He shrugged and walked out of the bathroom.

He felt like an idiot. He just poured his heart out to the girl, and probably rose her hopes up all too high. She looked upset earlier, and when she announced that Quinn was pregnant, he noticed the glint in her eyes fade ever so slightly. If it was a choice between the Quarterback and the Bad-ass, he was sure she went with the Q.B.

"Well, then aren't you going to," she looked down in a flattering blush before continuing into the bedroom, "you know, ask me to be your girlfriend?"

His chest welled up with longing. He wanted to be with her more than anyone else.

Then his thoughts floated out to Quinn. She was pregnant with his child, and she was completely against an abortion. He was responsible for her and the baby. But she was with Finn, and there was no way the girl would have given up him for the real father. She'll never tell anyone it's Puck's baby.

Maybe he was safe to go through with this. He could watch his daughter grow up from a little distance, but it was better than nothing. Quinn probably didn't want him in the baby's life anyway...

"Be my girlfriend."

"Was that a statement or a question?" Rachel played, smiling up at him as her arms wrapped around his midsection.

"Whatever it was, it looks like it was answered," he said, wrapping his arms around her neck, kissing the top of her head before pressing his cheek against it. Her hair smelled like lilac and lavender, and now quite possibly his favorite scent in the world.

To his disappointment, she pulled away from his chest, "we should probably get to work on those songs for Glee Club. We're going to need a lot of practice if we're going to beat Mercedes and Kurt. They're kind of a powerhouse together."

"First I have to do something," Puck said with a sigh.

Rachel had a slight moment of panic. What was he sighing about? She was in shock when she felt his lips press against her own for the second time that night. Her hand moved up to his left cheek, cupping it gently as her lips moved with his own.

The hand moved from his cheek, down to his neck, tracing her nails lightly over his skin. She traveled down his shoulder and over to his chest before her lonely fingers turned into a stiff palm, "Song. Now."

She pushed him away gently, but still enough to move him away from her. Rachel's laugh filled the air as she swayed over to the computer to play the song she picked for him...

She couldn't sleep. The haunting thoughts in the back of her mind. How could she manage to keep up this lie. It was going to ruin Finn's life entirely. A kid at 16? There was no way he was going to make it out of Lima if he did that. He didn't want to stay here... she remembered him saying that not too long ago. Now she was going to deprive him from his dream.

Quinn moved away from the window, rushing to get her Cheerios jacket off of her perfectly made bed, and out the door she went. Her breathing was shallow as she tried to calm herself down.

The last thing she wanted was for Finn to give up on them. She loved him so much, and the fact that she was drunk and stupid and believed that "trust me" was a sensible form of birth control. The truth had to come out, and she had faith in what they had.

The steps of her staircase disappeared under her feet as she quietly made her way down. Her father had fallen asleep on the couch to the Game Show Network for the millionth time. She couldn't help but roll her eyes as his intense snoring echoed through the room. Quinn picked up her keys off the coffee table and proceeded out the door and into her car.

She put the key in the ignition, letting the lights on the inside come on. The glowing green clock read an ugly three twenty-seven in the morning. She had been up almost twenty-four hours and her mind was obviously thinking rationally.

Her engine started and she reversed out of her driveway as quietly as possible. The left blinker blinked a harsh yellow against the red of the stop sign. She fished through her pocket, fishing for her phone that was lodged between the fabric and her skin. Hopefully her boyfriend was still awake playing video games or watching porn on HBO.

It took four different phone calls to finally get her boyfriend to step away from Halo, and she could only tell because he was talking into his headset while he absentmindedly picked up the phone, "hello?"

"Finn. I need to talk to you," she stated, not letting her voice tremble as much as she wanted it to. Her grip tightened on the steering wheel. "I'm going to be at your house in less than three minutes."

"Is everything okay? Can't I have a hint?"

She smiled darkly to herself, a stray tear dripping down her cheek, "you're an idiot."

That's when she hung up as she pulled up to the very last stop sign_. Last chance_. Her wheel veered into the left. She was in front of his two story house in seconds, the perfect time for a struggling Finn came into view. He was attempting to cover his torso with his Letterman jacket.

Should she get out of the car? No. It was better to keep it running, just in case her need to escape grew stronger.

Finn jogged up to her red punch buggy, opening the door quickly, chatting "cold, cold, cold" as he weighed the right side of the car down.

Quinn couldn't look at him. Her vision stayed towards the empty road in front of her. Should she just drive? No. If you're old enough to have sex, you're old enough to tell your boyfriend that it's not his baby.

"It's not yours."

"What? This jacket?" he smelt it quickly before a puzzled look went across his face, "I'm pretty sure this is mine."

A sick smile graced her face before it began to morph into crying, as she tried to hold back her sobs, she managed to say, "you're so stupid."

"Hey," he got offended, "stop saying that to me. Especially when you're crying... kind of makes me feel like my personality is going to make you miserable."

"_It_ would be the baby... I lied to you, Finn. I love you, but I lied to you." It made her laugh a little to tell him that she loved him now. Obviously she didn't or she wouldn't have had to sleep with her boyfriend's best friend.

He was quiet, just staring at her.

"Please say something. I need to know that we're going to be okay..." she pleaded, finally looking at him. She went to take his hand in her own, but he refused her gesture.

"You had sex with someone else... and not me," he played back her information in his head, "then told me you were pregnant with my child. A hot tub... how stupid am I really?"

"You're not stupid... I'm just very convincing," Quinn tried to make the atmosphere lighter.

"Who?" his hand turned into a fist.

"Does it really-"

"Of course it fucking matters."

She bit her tongue for a second. He never used curse words in front of her. "It was a Saturday night... and I felt really fat that day. Then he came around with a box of whine and we got drunk. He called me skinny and made me feel beautiful."

"Who the fuck is he?" Finn yelled, slamming his fists against he dashboard, causing her to jump a little and a small squeak escaped her lungs.

"Puckerman..."

"Are you-... No. Fuck this. Fuck you. Fuck everything."

He opened and slammed the door closed within seconds from those words.

Quinn's eyes welled up with tears as her heart pulled towards the man who was quickly storming back into his house, probably to punch a hole through the wall, or trash his room. He wasn't one for harsh actions, but there was little reason left behind a man who just found out the girl he was in love with cheated, and got pregnant, by the man he called his best friend.

She could only imagine what the school would be doing in the morning.

With blurry vision, she found her cell phone that rested in her cup holder and sent a text message, "_I had to tell him. It looks like you just lost a best friend."_


	12. A Sudden Death in Carolina

_Last night I fell asleep next to a liar and I woke up with a shiner,  
And it's all that I remember from a night spent lying on my back,  
With a view of a stone white ceiling and the back of your head.  
This dark and quiet bed felt like the middle of nowhere.  
We beat each other up just like we always do.  
When I'm talking to myself, I'd always rather be talking to you._

_Sudden Death in Carolina _– **Brand New. **

The sun shone bright outside as a light frost touched the window to her bedroom indicating the final start of winter. The hair on his hand rose with the goosebumps that began to form on his exposed skin. It was cold enough to get him to a point of half awake, half asleep. Luckily the light intruding into the bedroom bothered him almost as much as the cold air.

His eyes squinted open as he looked harshly at the window. He tried to perch himself up on his elbows, but he felt a warm, cuddly, mass attached to his torso. The scent of her hair registered in his head. He was holding Rachel against him. No wonder the sun work him up; his room had black blankets over his east facing windows to block such problems.

Unfortunately, his motion of getting up awoke the sleeping beauty. She stirred against him, leaving the side of his body cold, and Noah Puckerman didn't do good with the cold. "Oh, no. Not going to happen."

She woke up completely as soon as his cold hands gripped her sides and a yelp escaped her lips as she slid across the sheets, coming into contact with a bare chest resting against her back. The blanket flew over the top of them, covering up until Rachel's chin. She could feel Puck's hot breath against the back of her neck. It gave her a set of matching goosebumps that began to creep up her shoulders. "We have to get ready for school."

"Fuck school. Fuck the cold. Stay in bed with me today." It wasn't so much a suggestion as a plead. If they could stay here, then he wouldn't have to deal with Quinn, Finn or anything else that rhymed with them. He could cuddle with the girl that meant the most to him.

"And skip school?"

She sounded completely shocked, so Puck couldn't help but laugh. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer before landing a kiss against her cheek. "Yes, my innocent one."

Her fingers reached down towards his arm and laid a violent pinch on his forearm, causing him to suck a sharp breath in and retract his hand from her body. For a second, she felt her face start to form into a pout caused by the lack of touching they were doing.

Rachel turned over so she was facing the freezing man, eye to eye. "Did you ask me to be your girlfriend last night?"

"Technically, but as you said it came out as more of a demand, not exactly a question," he replied, tilting his head slightly at her.

"I thought it was a dream, sorry..." she said with some relief. A part of her thought it was too good to be true, but fortunately it wasn't.

"Nope. All real. Can't take it back now." He cuddled up to her warm body, wrapping his hands around her stomach and digging his face between the pillow and her neck, laying a sweet kiss against her flesh that was exposed by her tank top.

It sent a shiver down her spine, and caused an uproar of her goosebumps. She stiffened a little, and he noticed a hitch in her breathing. He smirked before he did it again, only lingering more than the previous time.

This was making Rachel's vision grow hazy, and her eyes to flutter uncontrollably. She gently placed a hand on his shoulders and moved him away from her, glaring. "Stop doing that."

"Why?" he asked, leaning in for another round, but she pulled the blanket between them and held it against her neck.

"Because we have to go to school," she spoke without really thinking about it. "Oh my gosh. We have to go to school!"

Before Puck could reach, the panicked girl was jumping out of her bed and rushing to her dresser. She picked up her glowing pink clock that read 9:32 A.M. "We over slept!"

If this was how Rachel was every morning, he wanted to rethink the question he asked her last night. Like a whirlwind, she was whipping around, grabbing clothes out of specific drawers before rushing into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. The water turned on within seconds, and he could hear the shower curtain close and rustle as she got situated with with cold.

Puck took his time getting out of bed, stretching, and even debated falling back to sleep until the rushing girl decided he needed to get up again. He really wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, but he had to go to school with her. They had a Glee song to get out of the way.

Slowly he rose, reaching for the sky as he threw his legs over the side of her bed. His nails dug at his scalp as he walked towards her dresser with a mirror attached. A good look at himself explained why he was so cold. He must have stripped off his shirt at some point in the night. It was strewn across the floor next to his side of her bed.

He raked his nails across the front of his chest, itching at his pecks as he looked across the assortment of feminine products that laid across her counter.

He picked up the first, oddly shaped, perfume bottle he could find and removed the cap. The scent was strong and filled his nose instantly. He could hardly hold back the coughing fit that wanted to rush through his throat. Puck set that one back down, with the cap situated tightly over the stench as he rushed to find another one with a less harsh scent.

Luckily, the second smell was far less fragrant. He shrugged and thought that this was going to be the best he could do, so he began to mask his body in the perfume, making sure both arm pits were specially attended to.

He smelled himself and figured that he'd done a good enough job at hiding whatever smell could possibly come onto him during the day. He grabbed his shirt off the floor before the door to the bathroom opened and his squeaky clean girlfriend stepped out, clad in a pair of simple, dark, skinny jeans and a crew neck white shirt. Her hair was still wet, so it hardly showed off how curly it really was.

She had a towel in her hands as she reached up to squeeze the extra water out of her hair. "What are you doing?"

"I don't have any deodorant, so I used your perfume." Puck motioned towards the counter. He slipped on his shirt from yesterday.

"Um..." she picked up the bottle that she noticed was out of place. "This is my throat spray, for days I have trouble warming up."

Puck sighed and slapped himself in the forehead, "this is what I get for going with what smells good instead of reading it."

"Aren't you going to shower?" Rachel asked as he picked up her car keys off the bedside table, and walked into the bathroom. She figured he was going to turn on the shower, but he went to the sink and grabbed the toothpaste, smearing it on his finger before attacking his teeth.

He spit into the sink, swishing around the water before splitting it out again. She was standing in the doorway, crossing her arms across her chest. He smiled down at her, showing off his freshly "brushed" teeth before placing a kiss against her lips.

Rachel couldn't help but smile and press back. Her arms left her chest and slipped around his neck as she got up on her tippy toes.

It surprised him, but Puck happily wrapped his arms around her waist as his mouth opened enough to bite her lower lip gently, asking for permission. Sadly, she pulled away as Puck tried to follow, not getting enough of her.

"We have to go to school," Rachel whispered with a flirty smile before stepping back. She reached down into his hand and grabbed her car keys before he could hold them over her head. Her body turned away from him and began walking towards her shoes that stood directly next to the door.

Puck had no choice but to follow her out of the house. He guessed that this was better than being up at six o'clock in the morning to catch an hour and a half of math, and another of dead people creating America. This way, they would arrive right in time for Glee Club, and then everyone would know that they were together.

To top that off, it would make Quinn's lie to Finn harder to trace back to him. He wouldn't lose anyone after all. He had faith that Quinn would keep this to herself. She wouldn't ruin her relationship with Finn. There was no way.

Rachel pulled into a spot towards the back of the parking lot, close to the football field. She questioned herself on if that was actually going to be a good idea. Normally, if one of the football players noticed her yellow, Prius close enough, she was always greeted by a cover of toilet paper or shaving cream. It was the only environmentally friendly car in the school- maybe even all of Lima- so it was hardly ever missed.

But, she decided to park there based on the man in her passenger seat. If they were going to be hanging out after school, it might be good to have a spot close to the field so her football player wouldn't have to walk very far to leave.

She was so caught up in thinking about the right parking spot for the day, she didn't notice that Puck was already out of the car, and walking around the back. Rachel huffed as her jaw dropped in annoyance. Was he really about to leave her in the car?

That's when her door clicked open.

A rush of a cold breeze flew into her car as she reached for the strap of her backpack. She turned slightly and grasped the hand that was awaiting her. Rachel couldn't help but blush as he helped her out and shut the door behind her. "Thank you, Noah."

"No problem, babe," he said as he dropped her hand and readjusted his backpack over his shoulder. Rachel began to walk behind him as they moved away from the cars. She thought about grabbing onto his hand before they walked into the school, but she was shy. This was too new.

It surprised her when Noah did more than hold her hand, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss against her forehead as they got to the front steps of good ol' McKinley. "What time is it?"

Puck picked his phone out of his pocket, and flipped it open. A message graphic clouded his screen, and he quickly escaped it when he noticed that it was from Quinn. He was sure Rachel could have seen it, but she gave no indication to noticing. Surely, she would be pitching a fit right now if she did. "It's almost ten."

"Then we should go get late passes and get to class," Rachel stated as she opened the door to the duo, much to Puck's annoyance. He was supposed to be opening doors for his lady.

"Why not just go straight to Glee Club? Then you don't have a late pass to deal with, and you don't have to worry about making a stupid entrance into a class that's almost over," he said in an attempt to convince her.

She thought about it for a moment. She has never actually been late to a class before... why would she want that to start now? Being absent was okay once in a while. "Okay."

Puckerman was shocked. That was really all it took for her to agree? Hm. This relationship might be easier to deal with than he thought.

She moved away from his grasp for a moment, letting his arm fall before she picked it up and locked it with her own. Her eyes looked up at him smirking. She couldn't help but smile and push him a little.

"Hey," he said with a laugh, bumping his him into her, playfully.

Rachel giggled a little as they turned into the empty choir room. She began walking towards the seats, but then noticed that Puck wasn't following her. Catching the end of him closing the door they just walked through, he began to move towards the other entrance. He pulled it to a close, and pulled down the curtain that hung above the window.

Puck turned back to Rachel, who had her head tilted to the side in confusion. "You look like a puppy when you do that. It's cute."

"Why'd you close the doors?"

He walked towards her, grabbing her hand as he crossed the room. His hands grabbed her hips and sat her down on his lap as he fell back into one of the plastic chairs. She smiled, and adjusted her position a little. Now that she could see his face, they could talk, "Are you read for the assignment?"

He looked up at her, and placed a kiss against her jawline, then ran his nose against the sensitive flesh of her neck. A sigh escaped his lips when he didn't get the reaction he wanted out of her. "I guess. Are you okay?"

Her head tilted again, and Puck couldn't help but smile at it. "What do you mean am I okay? Do I not seem okay?"

"You're not getting goosebumps," he said in a child like tone. He pouted at her before trying to reach her neck with an experimental bite, but she moved away from him. Pucks hands moved forward, trying to grab onto her.

"Nope." Rachel simply stated as she walked over to the band equipment. "Last night you mentioned that you were working on a song in your history class. Will you show me what you have so far?"

She picked up the only acoustic guitar in the room by the neck. Her steps were light as she walked over to Puck, holding out the instrument for him. She took a seat next to him, and he grasped the guitar. His fingers lightly strummed against the strings a few times. "Don't laugh, okay?"

"I promise." Rachel gave him a reassuring smile.

His foot began to tap as his own personal metronome as his fingers began to pluck along. "_Well, the night gets old so I'm back again. The day just started because I'm up with my old friends. I fast smoke and a funny joke. Sittin' like a sponge and letting everything soak. And I just got the nerve to get in the cage so don't bite me now. I just got the nerve to get in the cage so don't bite me now_."

Rachel watched his eyes close as he began to feel what he was singing- his hands having a mind of their own. It was almost intoxicating to watch him sing. She had a thought about how Finn's voice had never sounded as passionate as Puck's.

"_We made love tonight as a result of a fight, and when you put your arms around me the whole world's alright and a day's worth of bitching goes down the drain when you lay in my bed and pick my brain_," Puck sung as the strumming stopped. His eyes slowly opened and met her own. "Well?"

"I like it," Rachel said as she came out of her slight daze.

"It's gonna be a little hard to finish, but I'm actually gonna try." He said that as sort of a personal promise. He never tried to write songs before Rachel, and maybe this could be for her.

The bell rang, sadly signaling the start of third period, also the start of Glee Club. One by one, their fellow Glee Clubbers filed into the room. None of them really noticed that Puck and Rachel were sitting next to each other, let alone, holding hands.

A hitch caught in both of their throats as the warning bell rang. Rachel was thinking about how Finn was going to react to her new relationship with Puck, who was thinking about what Quinn was going to have to say about it.

Oddly enough, the final bell rang with Mr. Shue coming through the door instead of Quinn or Finn. It made the new couple slightly nervous. "Good Morning, guys."

They all chimed back with a "good morning." Santana was the first to speak alone, "Where's Quinn?"

"Yeah, and Finn?" Artie asked, looking behind him just to make sure he was really missing, too.

"Has anyone seen them today?" Mr. Shue asked, looking towards Rachel who couldn't help but look away from him. Puck just shrugged.

"Finn wasn't in math," Brittany spoke up.

"Neither were you," Santana said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I guess they're just absent, then... anyway, on with the class," Mr. Shue said, going over to the white board. He took the black marker and underlined the word "duets" before turning back to the class. "I believe we have Rachel and Puck up first. Let's go."

Rachel popped up and turned to the class as Puck went to go get two stools, keeping the acoustic guitar in his hands. She began to talk as he set up, "in honor of our new relationship we've-"

"Woah," Kurt, Santana, Mercedes and Artie all chimed in together, while the other students had their jaws on the floor.

"You're dating this munchkin?" Santana snapped. "You disgust me, Puckerman."

"Oh hey, look at all the fucks I give," Puck said, pulling out his empty pocket. They almost went at it before Mr. Shue got them all calmed down, and Rachel continued with her speech.

"We've decided to use this song to debut our relationship to all of you. Please enjoy," Rachel said with a humble smile as she took a seat next Puck.

Once again, the man began to play the guitar, sliding his fingers up and down the neck as he began to sing, "There is no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard, no song that I could sing, but I can try for your heart. Our dreams, and they are made out of real things."

Rachel picked up the following verse, "Like a shoebox of photographs with sepia-toned loving. Loce is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it's so hard?"

They were just about to sing together, when a very pissed off Finn stormed into the room. Puck stood up and turned just as his best friend was winding up. A punch to the cheek pushed the poor man back as the dropped guitar was slamming into the ground.

"You fucking bastard," Finn screamed at him as he went to attack Puck again, and this time he was ready to fight back. It took Mike Chang, Artie's wheelchair, Rachel and Mr. Shuester to stop the tussle, with Finn and Puck both on the ground, Finn's mouth still running. "After all I've done for you, then you go and knock up my girlfriend."

With that, Rachel's heart stopped. She slowly started to rise from her place beside Noah, tending to his busted lip. Her eyes were glossy, and downcast away from Puck. "No, Rachel. Please."

She didn't look to her boyfriend. Her eyes drifted to Finn. "Yeah, Rach. You heard me. Your boyfriend knocked up my girlfriend."

"Quinn's preggo?" Santana asked, wide eyed. "Oh lord, bless this day."

"You... you're the one who got her pregnant?"

"Wait, you knew Quinn was pregnant?" Finn asked Rachel's whose attention went back to Puck, who just begun rising off the ground.

"She overheard you yesterday under the bleachers." Puck answered for him, standing completely up. The blood on his lip began to flow again.

"Why aren't you upset?" Rachel asked as her fist clenched and her arms stiffened. "You just found out that you're going to be a father, and you don't even seemed phased by it."

He was caught off guard. He couldn't lie to her. Not while she was in possession of those adorable brown eyes he's grown to melt over. "Because I knew yesterday. I was the first person she told."

"And you didn't tell me?" Rachel and Finn chimed in together.

A heartbroken Berry stepped up to Puck. He wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and make Quinn and the whole world he seemed to be fucking up at the moment, disappear. "I thought I was going to be a different girl for you..."

"Nope. You're just like everyone else," Santana spoke up.

Rachel couldn't take it anymore. Her heart was literally dying in her chest, and she slowly began to wonder if it was ever going to stop. She really wanted to believe that he was going to treat her better. The morning started off so well; waking up together, the sweet way he opened the door for her, and how he wasn't shy to show off the fact his hand was grasping her own.

Her chest caved in as the tears began to pour down her cheeks. "I need to get away from you..."

It was a rhetorical statement, but as she walked out of the silent room, Puck couldn't help but follow along like a lost puppy. Finn still had has fist clenched and looked like he still had some rampaging to get out of his way.

Rachel was out into the hallway, with Puck following close on her heels.

"Well, that was the rise and fall of Puckelberry," Kurt whispered, sadly, to Mercedes who could only nod in agreement.

"What part of I need to be alone aren't you getting?" Rachel snapped, slamming the stage door behind her as she walked into the Auditorium. She had been yelling the entire way down the hallway. From how many times she tended to do this a week, the band was already setting up behind her on the stage, getting everything ready.

Puck opened the door quickly, whipping it open and letting it thud against the wall as he marched in. He stormed down the stairs. The whole "lets ignore Puck" deal was really starting to get to him. No matter what he said, she wouldn't stop, look, or listen. Luckily, there hadn't been any streets involved.

"You won't even let me explain! This happened months ago, before anything even started with you. How can you hold this against me?" Puck pleaded. He still didn't unclench his left fist, and his knuckles throbbed from the constant strain. If Rachel had had a penis, she would have been knocked out by now.

"But that doesn't mean that it doesn't effect us now," Rachel stated as she stomped up the steps in the alcove. The music started playing as the rest of the Glee Club filed into the theater, eager to see what was about to happen.

Puck turned and glared at them as he got to the middle of the Auditorium. His attention was fully on Rachel as her voice began to fill the room, "_What goes around, comes back around, hey, my baby_."

The rest of the girls rushed towards the stage, repeating this line as they all glared towards Noah before joining the singer on stage.

"_There was... a time I thought that you did everything right. No lies, no wrong. Boy, I must have been out of my mind,_" she glared at Puck as he watched with his anger softening. It shook her to the core to think about him fathering a child, especially one with her least favorite girl in the world.

"_So when I think of the time that I almost loved you, you showed your ass, and I saw the real you. Thank God you blew it, that God I dodged that bullet, I'm so over you, so baby good lookin' out._" The girls all chimed in with her, swaying in the background as Rachel took the microphone off of the stand and held onto the the thin metal, "_I wanted you bad, I'm so through with that, because, honestly, you turned out to be the best thing I never had. You turned out to be the best thing I never had and I'm gonna always be the best thing you never had. Oh baby, it sucks to be you right now._"

She let her voice fill the air, sounding strong and like she meant every word. And because of that, everything she said let another piece of his already broken heart fall to the ground, a million feet below him. Did she ever care in the first place?

"_I know you want me back, it's time to face the facts that I'm the one that's got away. Lord knows that it would take another place, another time, another world, another life. Thank God I found the good in goodbye_." Rachel said and dropped the mic, running off towards stage right. Her hand covering her face.

Puck's fists slammed into the chair below him as he began to yell in annoyance. He started to kick and pull at the plastic, flimsy piece of furniture, making the entire attached row shake and creek. He yelled a few more obscenities before he felt a calming hand on his shoulder. Puck stopped his violent actions, but still held a decent grip on the chair in front of him.

"It's gonna be okay, Puck." The teacher moved the hand from his shoulder, to his back and gave him a few quick pats. "We're all here for you if you need to talk."

"Or get down and dirty with. The best way to get over someone is to rebound," Santana spoke from the steps of the stage as they got off.

"Santana. Shut the fuck up. Go suck someone else's dick for a change." Puck turned on his heel and began walking towards the exit as Mr. Shue began scolding him on his language.

_Sorry, Mr. Shue. Right now I don't give a fuck._


	13. Dumped

_We talked all night until the sun showed up,_

_I confessed my love, but it wasn't enough.  
And it's only now that I'm finding out,  
You were the only one to break my heart.  
If I could just go back to the start,  
I'd tell myself I don't need anyone._

Dumped _– _**New Found Glory**

"Do you really expect me to be able to pay for all of these by myself?" Quinn yelled as a very annoyed Puckerman struggled to get through the crowded hallway in an attempt to throw the hormonal bitch off his heels. All second period, she had been texting him about how the doctor's kept sending her bills through the mail. It's not like it was his idea to put her real address.

"I don't expect you to do anything." With every step he took, the more frustrated he got. It took all the control in his body to not shove every kid in his way against the lockers. His fists were clenched tightly shut, turning his knuckles a ghostly white. Thankfully, the harsh glare that clouded his face was enough to part some of the students.

It had to be his glare, accompanied by Quinn's harsh tone as she yelled over the background noise, "then do something to help me pay for these. Get a job," she ordered.

A hand grabbed onto his shoulder, pulling him to a halt. He spun on his heel and faced the fiery girl. She had a threatening look about her, striking a slight bit of fear into his system. Puck couldn't actually do anything to stop her if she turned into a psychopath and attacked him. Hitting would lead to hurting a girl, and depending on where he hit, could have been harmful to his child.

Over the past three weeks, Quinn began to show a little weight gain. Puck noticed one day when they were out for lunch after the thousandth time they went to the doctor's office. She reacted on his comment by storming out of the restaurant. He would never mention her weight to her again, or to any other woman, for that matter.

"Are you aware that there's a fucked up economy out there? I bet I could be a college graduate with a PhD. in plastic surgery, and still not get a job in Hollywood," Puck stated.

The pure look of anger on her face faltered. Quinn struggled to find the words to form a comeback, but seemed at a loss. He rolled his eyes and began walking again. She thought he was oblivious, just like every other girl. Well... almost every girl.

As if the good Lord heard his thoughts, he spotted one, Rachel Berry, sadly accompanied by her friend, Finn Hudson. It struck him hard every time he had to watch him be within five feet from her. What he wouldn't give for one more conversation with her...

Ever since that day, that fucking day... he hasn't been able to talk to her. Not only was it hard for him to even face her, every time he got the nerve to, she would act like he wasn't there, or immediately walk away. Going through the day: walking past her and getting no acknowledgment what so ever, and having to sit though every Glee session, watching his ex-best friend flirt with his ex-girlfriend. It was torture to the highest degree.

She wouldn't talk to him, and Puck always seemed to have a compulsive need to make things in his life right after he constantly fucked them up. How was he supposed to know if she was okay if she wouldn't so much as acknowledge his existence?

He glared down the hallway as he stood still in the busy crowd, blocking most of the hallway since Quinn was still dragging behind. The world was moving around him, noisy and loud, but it was as if the sound of both of their hearts shattering as they watched the scene unfold in front of them.

Finn slowly leaned down, and kissed her on the cheek, while Puck watched in pure horror as a blush covered her cheeks. She smiled up to him, before closing her locker and taking his hand in her own.

Fortunately for Finn, he spotted the two down the hallway, so he conveniently chose to take her the opposite way. Quinn was the first to speak, "I guess they're dating now..."

Puck said nothing as the warning bell rang.

"I've got to get to class... we'll talk later," Quinn said, and he heard her footsteps glide away as the students cleared out.

Puck shoved his fists into the pockets of his baggy jeans and began walking down the hallway, being the only slow walking person there, letting the rest of them fly by in slight panic. He couldn't have cared less about going to class... especially when he was doing it all for Rachel.

Attending every class, putting up with every teacher, not dozing off in class, and torturous study rituals with different nerds. Even if she wasn't paying attention, maybe on the day she decided to care again, he would be doing something that made her proud. Now, he didn't give a fuck about what Rachel thought.

After all, she didn't care about him anymore.

The final bell rang as he turned the corner. All the doors slammed shut, sending echos into every piece of the school. He continued to walk, letting his feet guide him instead of his mind. Unfortunately, his steps took him to her third period. He gazed into the window, staring at his... Finn's Rachel.

The way her hair always fell in such perfect waves, while still being indecisive on if it wanted to be straight or curly. How she still managed to make his eyes widen with her natural beauty and lack of make up. Maybe it was her confidence he loved so much.

_Stop it_, he told himself. _It's only going to make it worse. _

For a moment, Rachel's expression shot to the door where he stood. His heart skipped a beat as their eyes met. Puck could feel her icy glare as it pierced through his chest, but there was still a chance... just a slight chance, that she was regretting her decision.

He was hoping, with most of his dismantled heart, that she would excuse herself from class and come to him. Letting him hold her one more time, smelling the perfectly blended scent of her dark brown hair, and telling her once and for all, that she couldn't leave him... he needed _his_ Berry.

Her glance faltered quickly before it pulled away. He could see the hurt tint in her eyes as she attempted to focus on the board and lecture. Pulling away from his gaze was the last thing he wanted her to do. For that moment, he knew he meant something to her, even if it was a brief patch of emotion.

He moved out of window view as the teacher moved too close for comfort. Even if she managed to see him, it wouldn't have made much of a difference.

Noah's hand went to his left pocket, searching quickly for his phone. His fingers moved smoothly over the keys, typing quickly, "come here."

His skull hit back against the locker, causing an echo to race through the hallway. The vibration sent a shiver through his arm, and his mouth begun to taste of copper. _I can't._

"Please..." he whispered. His fist slammed into the bottom row of lockers, sending another onomatopoeia through the school before he pushed off and kept heading towards the original location.

The doors slammed open, crushing against the dry wall, probably leaving a crack or two in it's wake.

"_I'm cut off, out of of the loop, back of the line. Can't get a word in, can't feel your body close to mine. And yeah, it's really quite more painful than it sounds,_" Puck began singing, filing the Auditorium full of his powerful voice as he jumped onto the stage and lights fell onto him. "_I can't believe we're losing the connection that we found. I'm heavy with the weight of missing you, my dear, and I would tell you how but you're too far away to hear. That this was the worst day, 'cause this was the first day that you're gone._"

The harsh spotlight made it hard to see, and with the band playing along with him now, Noah didn't notice a green-eyed beauty walk into the audience, taking a seat in the middle section, in one of the less worn out seats the lined the upper part. She stayed quiet, studying the man that was pouring his steel heart out in front of her.

"_I'm fucked up, end of the noose, back of the line. I feel sick when I think of the life I left behind. And yeah, it's really quite more painful than it sounds. You barely gave a fuck before my body hit the ground. I'm heavy with the weight of missing you, my dear. I would like to hear you're okay with out me, and your happy thoughts are rarely about me._" Puck stopped moving about the stage as the spotlight finally faded, "_You're so worth all of this torture."_

"No one's worth it you know," a voice called out to him as a steady clapping accompanied it. The shock of the sound only lasted a moment; as soon as he heard the soft hit that hung around after every word, he instantly knew it was the one and only, Quinn.

"Did I ask you?" Puck spat, jumping off the stage.

She stood up quickly, rushing down the long steps to grab him before he had a chance to escape, "I'm sorry. I can get a little cold once in a while..."

Puckerman said nothing. He sat down on the edge of the stage with a graceful thunk, leaving his legs cast over the edge. His feet slammed against the padding that lined the tiny wall that lied under him. It's not like he wanted to tell Quinn about his feelings, he was too much of a bad ass for that, but what else was he supposed to do?

She finally reached the stage, and stood in front of him. "You know I do care about you, right?"

He rose an eyebrow to her as her tiny hand laid across his thigh and she maneuvered herself between his legs, getting awfully close to matching her face with his own. He felt her minty, fresh breathe against his lips. His heart jumped a little as his hazel eyes locked with her own.

"I've always been attracted to you... when I was drunk was just more of an excuse to be with you, without actually being your girlfriend," she explained. "I loved Finn... but I liked you."

Before he could say anything in response, her lips fell onto his. It caught him off guard, and against his better judgment, he returned the pressure. Quinn's hand attached to his upper thigh, digging her nails slightly into his leg before running it up to his hips, pulling her chest closer to him. He bit gently against her bottom lip, asking for permission, but she pulled back. "Now we can be together."

"What?" That snapped him out of his daze quick enough.

"You heard me. Now would be the perfect time to try this. It's great. We can be a family," she pleaded. He studied her face, looking for any sign of a lie, but he couldn't find one.

"Are you serious?" He couldn't leave her to do this on her own. He wasn't going to take his father's path. Puck refused.

"Yeah... if we can make this work. But to find that out, we have to try. Besides, if they're doing it, why shouldn't we?" Quinn whispered. It was a mutual understanding who _they_ were.

"So... if this doesn't work out, and you do decide to keep her, can I still help and us not be together?" Puck asked to clarify.

"Of course. Someone has to pay these bills." Quinn said as a partial joke.

With a roll of his eyes, he forgot about how painful it was to watch Rachel and Finn holding hands. It stopped the repetition of the vision going through his mind a million times, over and over again. He filled her void with responsibility. Quinn needed him for support. "I'll get you money."

"Please don't tell me you're still in the pool business," she said with a sigh, "you need to get a real job."

"I've got this," he said simply, kissing her lightly on the nose.

She smiled warmly, before they kissed again. His hand cupping her chin and her hands residing on his waist. That's when someone cleared their throat behind him. A bitchy looking Santana stood with a bubbly Brittany by her side. "Hope I'm not ruining your tonsil hockey session."

"Not at all," Quinn stated, not moving. It surprised him a little. Santana was more than protective of what was her's, and in her twisted mind, Puck was her's. A glare pierced through their bodies as another girl from his past walked into the room, holding hands with her new boyfriend. Noah's eyes fell onto her as she came in from behind Quinn. They were surrounded.

"Oh God, we've got Quick to deal with now," Kurt spoke with annoyance.

"That's the best you can do?" Puck asked. The back of his mind made it known that "Puckelberry" sounded so much better.

"I'm still in shock, Puckerman. Give me a moment," Kurt said as they all filed down to the lowest level of the Auditorium.

He couldn't help but keep his eyes on Rachel, and he didn't really care if Quinn or anyone else watched him. She looked at him with such hatred it almost hurt worse than her holding hands with Finn. He watched every step as she walked down the stairs. When he felt Finn's eyes on him, he finally looked back to his new girlfriend, who was fighting with Santana.

"Sex isn't dating, Santana, you really must get that through your head," Quinn said with a roll of her eyes as Mr. Shue walked in, his eyebrow already rose in confusion as he spotted the couple.

"Okay... everyone, let's get ready for this number," He said, clapping his hands together as they all took their places...


End file.
